Effect of mechanical strain on 1/f noise in metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors

Abstract

The drain current 1/f noise power spectral density (PSD) is measured on industrial long channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) under externally applied mechanical stress. It is observed that 1/f noise PSD increases for both n-channel MOSFETs under uniaxial tensile stress and p-channel MOSFETs under uniaxial compressive stress. The strain-induced noise PSD change is also frequency dependent with larger changes at lower frequencies. The change in noise PSD magnitude is shown to be primarily due to mechanical strain-induced mobility change while the change in noise index α in the 1/fα spectrum is attributed to strain-induced energy level shift in the inversion layer and/or trap redistribution in energy and space.