Effect of Reverse Substrate Bias on Degradation of Ultra-Thin Gate-Oxide n-Channel Metal--Oxide--Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors under Different Stress Modes

Degradation of ultra-thin gate-oxide n-channel metal--oxide--semiconductor field-effect transistors with the halo structure has been studied under different stress modes with a reverse substrate bias. The device degradation under the same stress mode with different reverse substrate voltages has been characterized by monitoring the substrate current in a stressing process, which follows a simple power law. When the gate voltage is less than the critical value, the device degradation will first decrease and then increase with the increasing reverse substrate voltage, otherwise, the device degradation will increase continuously. The critical value can be obtained by measuring the substrate current variation with the increases of reverse substrate voltage and gate voltage. The experimental results indicate that the stress mode with enhanced injection efficiency and smaller device degradation can be obtained when the gate voltage is less than the critical value with a proper reverse substrate voltage chosen.