A General and Reliable Model for Charge Pumping—Part I: Model and Basic Charge-Pumping Mechanisms

Abstract

Starting from a rigorous analysis of the charge-pumping (CP) mechanisms, a general CP model, which accounts for capture time constant distribution (TCD) that exists at Si -SiO2 interface, is derived. By doing so, CP curves of state-of-the-art MOS devices are extremely well simulated. It is remarkable as this is achieved in a large range of experimental conditions, confirming the reliability of the approach. The interpretation of the TCDs in terms of distance from the Si- SiO2 interface through carrier tunneling, as used initially, is discussed in the light of recent results which show that the traps which dominate at the Si-SiO2 interface in fully processed devices, at least down to 109 eV1middotcm-2, are acceptor-like in the upper part of the bandgap, donor-like in its lower part and are amphoteric, i.e., have the properties of the Pb0 centers. As the model allows the energy and depth regions probed to be known in all experimental conditions, this paper focuses on the basic CP features at the Si-SiO2 interface and toward the insulator depth. For that, one of the standard CP curves is used.