Effect of oxide field on hot-carrier-induced degradation of metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors

While the substrate current is a useful tool for extrapolating metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor lifetime from accelerated stressing data, the substrate current can vary significantly during a constant-voltage stress test. We have studied device degradation using a constant-field method. The critical electron energy for device degradation is found to be 3–6 eV, depending on the oxide electric field. These values are 50% higher than those reported elsewhere.