Drive current enhancement in p-type metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors under shear uniaxial stress

Abstract

Recent attention has been given to metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) device designs that utilize stress to achieve performance gain in both n-type MOSFETs (NMOS) and p-type MOSFETs (PMOS). The physics behind NMOS gain is better understood than that of PMOS gain, which has received less attention. In this letter, we describe the warping phenomena which is responsible for the gain seen in [110] uniaxially stressed PMOS devices on [100] orientated wafers. We also demonstrate that shear uniaxial stress in PMOS is better suited to MOSFET applications than biaxial stress as it is able to maintain gain at high vertical and lateral fields.