Anomalous telegraph noise in small-area silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors

In the drain current of submicrometer silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors, we have observed a new class of random telegraph signal which exhibits anomalous behavior. We discuss the various models that could account for these signals and suggest that they are due to individual Si/SiO₂ interface states which can exist in two or more charge-equivalent, metastable states. We describe one particular signal which is consistent with sequential two-electron capture involving a number of such metastable states at a single defect. We point out that these signals are a source of non-Gaussian noise.