High-field transport of inversion-layer electrons and holes including velocity overshoot

Abstract

In this paper, we experimentally address the effect of a wide range of parameters on the high-field transport of inversion-layer electrons and holes. The studied parameters include substrate doping level, surface micro-roughness, vertical field strength, nitridation of the gate oxide, and device channel length. We employ special test structures built on Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) and bulk wafers to accurately measure the high-field drift velocity of inversion-layer carriers. Our findings point to electron velocity overshoot at room temperature, dependence of electron and hole saturation velocities on nitridation of the gate oxide, dependence of the high-field drift velocity on the effective vertical field, and relative insensitivity of electron and hole mobility and saturation velocity to moderate surface roughness.