Hot-carrier-induced device degradation in Schottky barrier ambipolar polysilicon transistor

Abstract

This study experimentally investigated the hot-carrier-induced device degradations in Schottky barrier (SB) ambipolar polysilicon transistors and validated the degradation mechanism. The behavior of hot-carrier-induced device degradation in SB ambipolar transistors was different from that of a unipolar MOSFET. The phenomenon of hot-carrier generation at the source electrode, attributed to the existence of a high electric field across the reverse-biased source electrode in SB transistors and the competing degradation mechanism between the trapped charges at the gate oxide near the source edge and drain electrode, explained the experimental results. The degradation mechanism was justified by measuring the gate current and transfer characteristics in the forward and reverse modes before and after hot-carrier stress, respectively. The results can contribute to the non-volatile memory applications and aid in investigating the aging effects of multi-functional integrated circuits using reconfigurable field-effect transistors.