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1190 IEEE TRANSATIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, VOL. ED-31, NO.

9, SEPTEMBER 1984

Modified 1/ f Trapping Noise Theory and


Experiments in MOS Transistors
Biased from Weak to Strong
lnversiorl-Influence of
Interface States
G , REIMBOLD

Abstract-Low-frequency l/f noise in Si n-channel MOSFETs is mea- In this paper, we develop McWhorters model further and, by
sured from weak to strong inversion, through the relative spectral den- taking into account all the capacitive components of the small-
sity of the draincurrent fluctuations SrD/I&. Underspecificcondi-
tions, a plateau is observed in the variations of S r D / I i versus thf:gate signal equivalent circuit, we derive an original current noise
voltage in weak inversion followed by a steep decrease in strong inver- spectral densityexpression. We studyparticularlythe char-
sion. A modified trapping noise theory based on the McWhortels as- acteristic term SID/Z:, which exhibits clearly thedifferent
sumptions and valid in all the working regimes is developed to acc:ount noise behavior between weak inversion (where SID/Ih is gen-
for this behavior. Excellent agreement is obtained with the variations erally shown to be a constant at 300 K), and strong inversion
of severalparameters: gate and drain biases, geometry, oxide and de-
pletion Capacitance, temperature, and technologies.Theinfluence of (where it decaysstrongly). Thetheoretical expression of
fastinterfacestates is particularlystudied and is related to thenoise SrD/I$ is first developed at low drain bias and is then extended
variations and the oxide trap densities. t o high drain bias in weak inversion.
The influence of the oxide capacitance Cox anddepletion
capacitance CD is experimentally demonstrated and we show
I. INTRODUCTION the very important influence of the interface trap density Dit,

I N RECENTyears, the l / f noise of MOSFETs has been


studied by many authors. Nevertheless, most of them ana-
lyzed transistors operating in strong inversion and hence with
in the case of bad quality devices or at low temperature. Un-
derthese conditions, special modificationsin SrD/Z:,(V~)
curves are related to static characteristics ZD(VG), V, being
high drain currents.Inorder t o understandthetransition the gate bias.
regimes and to develop low-power devices, the weak invexion This simple theory shows very good agreement with experi-
regime of MOSFETs is more and more studied. mentalmeasurementsinthe whole range of bias while the
This paper presentsmeasurementsof drain current noise mobility fluctuation model in its present form cannot explain
spectral density SrD for transistors with drain currents ZI,ex- the weakinversionplateaubecause of the continuously de-
tending from less than 1 nA t o several milliamperes and drain creasing total number of carriers Ntot versus gate bias VG in
biases VD from 5 mV to 10 V. This allows us to analyzi: the the well-known Hooges relation
noisebehavior for the characteristic biases: weak, moderate,
01
and strong inversion. Transistors of different geometries and -= -
technologies are also studied at two temperatures ( T = 30C and I
:,Ntotf *
77 K), and some results on trap distributionin the silicon tand-
gap according to the technologywill be deduced. 11. THEORY
Several theories have been proposed to account for l/fnoise As proposedinpreviouspapers [4]-[6],thetheoretical
in MOS transistors, the most essential being the mobility fluc- model assumes that l/f noise arises from tunneling transitions
tuation model (usually described by the Hooges empiricd re- between oxide traps located a few angstroms away from the
lation [ l ] , [2]), and McWhorters model[3],[4](which as- interface between the MOST channel and the silicon dioxide.
sumes tunnelingtransitionsbetweentraps in theoxideand In order to derive a simple expression for the spectral density
channel charges). In spite of many attempts to compare x to of fluctuations, oxide traps are supposed to be distributed uni-
try to correlate the two theories, there is no evidence t sday formly in space.
whether the mobility model is more suitable than the trapping As we recentlyoutlined[7], we consider that each local
model or not. fluctuation of the number of occupied trapsGntAYAZ (Fig. l),
nt(cm-> being the oxide trap density, produces local a fluctu-
Manuscript received August 4, 1983; revised April 3, 1984. ation of the number of free carriersin the channel (SNAYAZ),
Theauthor is with the Laboratoire dePhysiquedesComposznts
Semiconducteurs,(ERA CNRS No. 6 5 9 ) , InstitutNationalPohtech- N(cm-) being the free carrier density that is associated with a
nique de Grenoble, ENSERG, 38031 Grenoble Cedex, France. local conductance G, and current density fluctuation; the ele-

0018-9383/84/0930-1190$01.OO 0 1984 IEEE


REIMBOLD: Ilf TRAPPING
THEORY
NOISE EXPERIMENTS
AND IN MOS TRANSISTORS 1191

where Cit and C, = -(4/kT)Q, = -Pen


are, respectively, inter-
face trap and channelcharge capacitances per unit area.
It follows that

For weak inversion IPQ,l << CD + Cox 4- Cir [IO] and R


Fig. 1. Top-view of the MOST channel with drain and source diffusions. can vary over several orders of magnitude

then # CD t c o x t Cit
<< 1.
In strong inversion IPQnl >> C, t CqX t C,it and R # 1. So
we again find the results of Jindal
and van de:r Ziel.
Inserting (3) into (l), we get:

Considering that the trap density is small enough to neglect


the mutual influence of neighboring traps [ 1I ] and to use the
Fig. 2. Charge localization in the MOST structure. well-known relation between (SntAYAZ)' and the trap den-
sity Nr (eV-l * ~ r n - ~ )

mentary spectral components are related as follows [5] : (SntAYAZ)' = NrAYAZAXAEfr(1 - f r )


f t being the Fermi function andA E the energy increment, the
integration of all the fluctuations resulting from the trap dis-
tribution (supposed to be uniform over the whole channel)
leads, through a classical calculation [4], t:o the general rela-
tion valid in weak and strong inversion at low drain bias

The es,sential contribution of the ratio R = ISN/Sn,J has been X =+i(8m*C#J))-1'2


is the tunneling constant for electrons, m*
introduced for the first time by Yau and Sah in the case of the electron effective mass in the oxide, @ the energy barrier
generation-recombination noise in MOS transistors [8], and it for tunneling electrons,and4 thePlanck's rleduced constant.
was sh.own t o be responsible for the elimination of theoretical In practice, a l/fy frequency dependence (0.8 < y < 1.2) in-
noise divergence in saturation because of the channel pinch off. stead of I/f is generally observed and can be explained by a
Using very detailed calculations, Jindal and van der Ziel [9] nonuniform spatial distribution of traps in the oxide [ 121. So
have shown that R strongly varies with bias from weak inver- we obtain the essential relation
sion (typically R * IO-") to strong inversion ( R = l), and is 3- Nt
independent of the nature and position of the trap as long as -- (4)
the distance between the trap and the interface silicon-oxide
1: f (Cox + CD + Cit - PQn)'
is small compared to the oxidethickness .eox. with
However, amoreappropriate expression of R leading to
easier formulation and interpretation of the noise spectra is
now derived: when the trapped charge Q, fluctuates, thecharge
conservation in the structure (Fig. 2) is such that i) For weak inversion I P Q n l << Cox + CD -+ Cit and
SQC +SQittSQD
+6Q,+SQr=O (2 )
where SQc, SQit, S Q D , SQ, = -qSN (respectively, gate, inter-
face trap, depletion zone, and channel charge fluctuations) can For a given frequency, since C, slowly va:ries with the biases,
berelated to the surface potential fluctuations by equations S I ~ / appears
I ~ to be a constant as long as Ci, and Nr varia-
tions versus biases remain small.
~ Q G =-CoxS& ii) For strong inversion IPQ,l >> Cox -t C D -F Cir and
~Qir=-cit~C#J,
'ID - Nt
S<!D = -cDSsbs I: f' P2Qi (6 )
S Q , = -CnS4s and SID/IAstrongly depends on gate bias through I/&.
1192 IEEE TRANSP.CTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, VOL. ED-31, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 1984

low nome
amolifler
resistance Rin, and dynamic MOST channel resistance R,. The
RP h
quantity a is a calibrating factor of the digital noise measure-
ment system a = 0.6. The processing of two data sets (corre-
sponding to two different sampling frequencies) has been nec-
essary to obtain this spectrum in Fig. 4 and the two correspond-
ing cutoff frequencies of the filtersof the digital noise measure-
ment systemare visible. Thetotalthermal noise level [17]
3. Principleof the biasingcircuit of the MOST fornoise mea- and the noise of the measurementsystem are also represented.
surements.
High frequencies (>lo00 Hz) are not studied because of the
cutoff introduced by RE and the equivalent capacitance at the
amplifier input.
The devices used in this study were made by the DTE Lab-
oratoryofThomson-CSF St.-EgrBve (France). The transis-
tors are n-channel, enhancement type. Two technologies were
available:
i) a LOCOS technology,the gate insulator being silicon
dioxide covered by silicon nitride;
ii) a classical LTO technology (insulation by deposited sili-
con dioxide), the gate oxide being silicon dioxide.
The transistors were made from (100) substrates with a dop-
ing density of 2.5 X lo1 crnm3. The channel width is 100 pm
and the channel length varies from 7.5 to 100 pm. The equiv-
alent oxide thickness is 1200 or 1700 A, and some transistors
have received a complementaryboronimplantation which
>\ J modifies the threshold voltage and the depletion capacitance.
10 -2 lo- 1 10 10)
Frequency fltlz)
lo2
lob The different types of transistors (implanted with boron or
Fig. 4. Typicaldrainvoltagenoisespectrum. LOCOS transistor: not implanted) are available on each chip so that the compari-
son of the two types of devices is greatly improved. Several
wafers of each technology were studied.

iii) For the intermediate case of moderate inversion [.3], IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTSAND DISCUSSION
a numerical calculation is necessary to obtain a precise model- In order to improve the comparison theory-experiment, it is
ing, as will be seen in Section IV, where the extension of the first necessary t o model e,(
VG),which has to be very precise
model for all drain bias will also be studied. because oftheexponentialdependence of Q, versus VG in
weak inversion. One of the purposes of this work is the deter-
111. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND DEVICES minationofthe characteristic value ofthe weak inversion-
In order to perform experiments which can easily be con- strong inversion transition voltage &(2$F), $F being the
nected to the physics and to avoid problems associated vlith Fermi level.
the transconductance g, [ 141, [ 151, we measure and analyze The Q,( VG) modeling is made by taking into account all the
the drain voltage and current fluctuation spectra SvD and ,SID charge contributions when solving Poissons equation [ 181. As
rather than the equivalentgate voltage fluctuation spectrum the measurement of the flat-band voltage V, of the transis-
SvG. We used a digital system working with a small comptiter tors is not precise enough forourpurpose, because VFB is
and FFT algorithms [ 161. measured on a capacitance and not directly on the studied de-
Since the current noise spectral density is measured for very vice, the theoretical curve Q,(Vc) is compared to the experi-
low drain current levels and in order to avoid thermal noise mentalonethroughthecurrent curve I,( VG) at very low
limitations in weakinversion [17], very low-frequency r e a - drain bias
surementsare necessary; therefore, noise spectra have b:en
investigated over frequency
a range extending
from to
103 HZ.
The biasing of the devices for the noise measurement prcce- being theelectronmobility. Assuming a weakly varying
dure is schematicallydescribedin Fig. 3 and a typical spec- mobility in the range of weak inversion and beginning of strong
trum is reported in Fig. 4, where the ordinates correspond to inversion when operating at T = 300 K [19] and measuring it

~ + 4kT
SvD = ( Y R(!71~ ($ + &-)I. at the beginning of strong inversion from the ID( VG) curve in
linear scales, we observe a very goodagreement between

RE is the dynamic resistance as measured between the driin The mobility variation with biases can depend on several parameters
and can sometimes be important; nevertheless, our I g ( V c ) modeling
terminal and ground. As seen in Fig. 3, RE is the parallel con- has shown that, for our devices, the carrier mobility slowly varies (no
nection between the biasing resistance R,, the amplifier input more than 10 percent) from weak to moderate inversion.
REIMBOLD: l/f TRAPPING NOISEEXPERIMENTS
THEORY
AND IN MOS TRANSISTORS 1193

4 I difference betweenthetwo curves increases smoothly. This


can be explained by a trap density Nt increasing slowly when
the Fermi level approaches the conduction band, asis gener-
ally observed fortrap variations [20], [21]1. A lot of mea-
surements under the same experimental conditions were per-
formed on transistors of various geometries and technologies
asdescribed in Section 111. The general noise dependence of
SrD/I; on geometry hasbeen verified in the whole range of
- Experiment 1% =5mVI biases. Moreover, the typical dependence S,rD/I$(VG)shown
Weak inversion
___ Model on Fig. 6 has been observed for all the devices. All the experi-
mental curves present a plateau over the large range of weak
inversion biases studied, and thus confirm the general validity
300 500 700 900 1100 of the theoreticalexpression (4).
V, i2Q Fl Gate bias V,lmVl
The plateaus level has beenpreciselymeasured for many
Fig. 5 . Drain current modeling. LOCOS transistor; T = 300 K ; Z =
100 pm; L = 15 p m . devices in order to study the noise dependelnce with Coxand
CD. Dit measurements have shown that Cit could be neglected
at T = 300 K , and (4) reduces to

Three different methods were available to deduce Cox and


CD
i) The C ( V ) method which is a dynamicmeasurementat
low frequency and so leads to the exact capacitanc :s that have
to be taken into accountin (4).
ii) A static method which consists of measuring the slope of
the transistorcharacteristics ID(VG)in weakinversion [lo]. For
transistors with uniform doping density, we obtain Cox/Cox -t
C, -t Cit, with CD usually approximated by

where e, is the silicon permittivity and NA the substrate im-


-.D! purity concentration. For transistors with nonuniform doping
1
density,the capacitance we can deduce bythismethodno
102 2 IO2 f 5 IO2 103 2 103
v, I* =? *p I Gate bias vGh#) longer agrees with (8) and differs from the dynamic capaci-
2
Fig. 6 . S I ~ / Z D ( V Gin) the whole range from weak to strong inversion
tance of noise theory. A numerical modeling would be neces-
regime, at low VD; T = 300 K; f = 15 Hz; transistor from classical sary to connect the ID(VG)slope and this dynamic depletion
technology not implanted; Z = 200 pm; L = 15 Mm; wafer no. 2. capacitance.
iii) A theoreticalmethodwhichpresentsthe same restric-
theory and experiment (Fig. 5): the discrepancy between the tions as before, and consists in a direct calculation of Coxand
two curves is less than 10 percent for the whole range of in- CD *
vestigation.This method leads to a value V G ( 2 @ F ) known In order t o compare noise measurements with (7), we have
with an uncertainlyless than 10 mV. only used the C ( V ) method. Nevertheless, the agreement be-
tween the three methods in the case of uniformly doped tran-
A. Noise in the Linear Region sistors has been verified.
Measured values of SID/IA versus VG for a transistor of clas- Table I shows the comparison theory-experiment for a typ-
sical technology, at low drain bias and T = 300 K are reported ical transistor of each technology. These typical measurements
in Fig. 6. In agreement with the theory presented in Section show the good agreement of noise dependence with oxide and
11, the curve exhibits a plateau in weak inversion (i.e., for our depletion capacitances.These measurements also agree with
measurements at V, = 20 mV, drain currents from 1.8 to 125 the initial assumption that Nt is a constant for each technology
nA) followed by a steep decrease in strong inversion. On the studied. So we obtain the important conclusion that a small
samefigure isgiven the theoretical variation S I ~ / $ ( V G )as
, difference in theoxidegrowth(theoxidethickness being
deduced from (4), assuming that Nt is a constant and modeling 1200for classical/not implantedtransistorsand 1700 a
Q,(V,) as describedpreviously. Cox and CD were obtained for classical/implantedtransistors), as well as a comple-
by C(c) measurementsand C j , was neglected (Dit < 2 X mentaryimplantationofboronthroughtheoxide does not
10 eV- crn-). A goodagreement with
experimental substantially modify the trap density.
measurementsappears,particularlyaroundthecharacteristic It must be pointed out that for LOCOS technology measure-
value VG(24F). At high current levels in strong inversion, the ments reported in this table, the C( V ) curves ,and SID/IA(VG)
IEEE
1194 TRANSAlZTIONS
ELECTRON
ON
DEVICES, VOL. NO.
ED-31, 9 , SEPTEMBER 1984

TABLE I
ON cox
NOISEDEPENDENCE AND CD AT T = 300 K; COMPARISO?:
THEORY-EXPERIMENT
_-
_I

"classicalTechnology".
not implanted.
Z/L=200/15
Wafer nell
"classicalTechnology",
imolanted

Z/L=200/15
"LOCOS Technology".
1 2.95 I 2.36
implanted. 3.2 10.' 5.53 lo-' 8.8 IO-''
Z/L=200/15

curves have been obtainedfromdifferent chips.Thiscould 10 lo1 1c 10 '


Drain bias VplmVl
explain the small discrepancy between experiment and theory.
Fig. 7. S r D / I i ( V ~from
) ohmic to saturation region in weak inversion.
B. Noise in the Nonlinear Region (Draincurrentsareindicated in nanoamperesinsidebrackets.) T=
300 K ; f = 15 Hz;Z = 200 pm; L = 15 pm. (a) Transistor from "clas-
When the conduction channel can no longer be considered sical technology," implanted. (b) Transistor from "classical technol-
as uniform, current noise spectral density becomes ogy," not implanted.

In the weak inversion region, the expression of Q, along the


channel is [ 2 2 ]

with

Q,( y ) decreases from Q,(O) at the source to Q,(O) exp [ -PVD 1 1.15 1.05 1.1 1.2 1.25
(m/n)]at the drain. For all these values, PQ, << Cox t ,CD in Gate bias V,WI
weak inversion. Assuming that Ci, is a constant over thewhole Fig. 8. Transistor from "LOCOS" technology, not implanted. T = 77 K;
channel at T = 300 K, i.e., Dit is approximately const;mt in f = 0.2 Hz;Z = 100 pm;L = 10 pm; low drain bias; wafer no. 11.
energynear the midgap [20], [21], theintegration clf (9)
leads to

which is similar to (S), but valid for all drain biases. h'o the
characteristic function S I D / I i is independent of drain bias
in weak inversion at T = 300 K.
We have reported in Fig. 7 the experimental charactzristic
noise function S I D / I i versus VD in weak inversion for t -ansis- z 10-1 4.55 4.55 j 4.6 4.65 4.7 4.75 4.0 i
tors of eachwafer of classical technology. As predicted by Gate blas VG(VI

(12), there is no variation of S I D / I i in the whole range of Fig. 9. Transistorfrom "classicaltechnology,"implanted. T = 77 K ;


drain bias, i.e., from 10 mV to10 V. f = 0.2 Hz;2 = 200 pm; L = 15 pm;low drain bias; waferno. 2.

C. Noise at Low Temperature (77 K ) a transistor of LOCOS technology, wafer 11, not implanted;
Figs. 8-10 represent theexperimental noise function SID/ Fig. 9 shows a transistor of classical technology, wafer 2 , im-
I ~ ( V Gin) weak and moderate inversion at low temperature planted; and Fig. 10 shows a transistor of classical technology,
(77 K) and low drain bias for different devices. Fig. 8 shows wafer 2 , not implanted. Contrary to the results at T = 300 K,
REIMBOLD: l/f TRAPPING
EXPERIMENTS
THEORY
NOISE
AND IN MOS TRANSISTORS 1195

Fig. 10. Transistorfrom classical technology,notimplanted. T=


77 K ; f = 0.2 Hz;Z = 200 um; L = 15 urn; low drain bias; wafer no. 2. 1610 11.20 IL30 1LLO
Ciate bias V,(mVI
Fig. 11. X X X is the experimental Cit and Dit values versus VG for a
none of these curves presents a plateau in weak inversion. It transistor of classical technology, not implanted, is the uncer-
f+

is replaced by a decreasing noise level, the slope of which de- tainty due to the temperature, c,is the uncertainty due to thepara-
sitic term pQ,, and -is the empirical relation Cft = U(Vc - V G ~ ) .
pends on the device.
For each transistor, we have also displayed the static ID( V , )
characteristic inweak andmoderate inversion, atlow drain In order to get quantitativeresultsand modeling of SID/
bias. Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 exhibit usual ZD(VG) curves, Le., I;(&) curves at low temperature,wehave performed Cit(VG)
a constant slope in weak inversion in log-lin scale, which de- measurements by the ID(V,) method in we,ak inversion as ex-
creases inmoderate inversion (V, > VG(24F)). The associ- plained by Van Overstraeten [lo]. We get more precise re-
ated S I ~ / I A ( V Gcurves
) presenta smoothly decreasing level sults than by analyzing the slope of the ID( &) curve in log-lin
instead of a plateau. On the contrary, the ID( V,) curve of scale because the ID( V) method gives results independent of
Fig. 8 does not exhibit any constant slope in weak inversion, the standard deviation of surface potential u,*provided it takes
but a continuously decreasing one, so that even the character- usual values. This method gives direct meiasurements on the
istic value VG(24F) cannot be determined as easily as before. studied transistors (as opposed to C- V measurements) and is
Two classical phenomena can explain the modification of the also quicker to perform.
ID( VG)Icurve: To get significant results, it is important to be sure that the
i) Surface potential fluctuations due to fixed oxide charges classical weak inversion current relation [ 101
randomly distributed in the oxide and which affect the con-
ductance mobility p [22]

p = ELm( 1 - +(Us,) (1 8)
holds, in order that the channel charge ( 2 , be calculated
can
pm being the microscopic mobility, not influenced by fluctua- throughthe previously describedmodelingand thus can be
tions and ((5:) being the variance of surface potential fluctua- taken into account for the precision of Ci, measurements. For
tions normalized to kT/q. Nevertheless, thisphenomenon this reason, Dit measurements from I D ( V G ) curves of transis-
does not lead simply to an explanation of the decreasing noise tors like the one shownin Fig. 8 withoutconstant slope in
in weak inversion, weak inversion in log-lin scale have not been performed. On
ii) The increase of the interface trap density Dit near the the contrary, Q,(V,) values can be calculated very precisely
conduction band thatcan trap or de-trap charge carriers because forthetransistor of Fig. 10,for which we have deduced
the Fermi level probes closer to the conduction band as the cit(VG) and Dit(VG) values. They are represented in Fig. 1 1
temperature decreases. As shown by many authors [20], [21], with vertical arrowstaking intoaccount in the calculation
[23], [:24], Ci, can increase drastically in the bandgapnear the i) a temperature uncertainty on the chip of 3 K, ii) the influ-
conduction band, i.e., when the gate bias increases. This evolu- ence of the terms PQ, and l / q Q, for Ci, and Dit calculations,
tion of Cit can then explain both the I D ( & ) slope variation respectively. These terms can only lead to an overestimation
through. Cox/Coxt CD t Ci, and the decreasing noise level of real Cit and Dit values in the same way as in(4).
through (4). The transistors of Figs. 9 and 10 which exhibit Using a mean value for Ci, approximated by Ci, = V(VG -
the usual I D ( & ) curves, and hence have moderate Di, near V G , ) f o r V ~ < 1 4 4 5 m V , ~ i t h U = 2 . 1 O - ~ F * m - ~ *VV G ,-= 9

the band edge, present SID/Ii(VG)curves with smoothly de- 1388 mV, and Ci, = 1.2 X F m - 2 for VG > 1445 mV,
creasing level instead of a plateau. On the contrary, the tran- which becomes rapidly negligible compared to PQ, as VG in-
sistor of Fig. 8 does not present any constant slope in weak creases, we have modeled the theoreticalS I D / I ; ( V ~ curve ) (4)
inversion and so has a rapidly increasing trapdensity Dit at low drain bias (Fig. 10). We observe a good agreement be-
towardstheband edge. This varying trapdensity has to be tween the experimental and theoretical curveand hence the
associated with the observed rapidly varying capacitance Ci, incurvation in weak inversion can be quantitatively well ex-
responsible forthestrongly decreasing level of , S I ~ / I $ ( V G )plained by the variation of Ci, in the bandgap, as it had been
curve. qualitatively explained for all the transistors studied.
IEEE
1196 TRANSA(1TIONS
ON ELECTRON
DEVICES, VOL. NO.
ED-31, 9, SEPTEMBER 1984

TABLE I1
TYPICAL TRAP PROFILE
I N THE FORBIDDEN GAP OF SILICON
(Transistor not implanted.)

5
0: i 12 bo
2
I I , I wLA Drain bias VDImVI
10 moderate -
stronginversion
260,120 3 10 -+ 6 10% 2.3 10!!+2.5 10%
Fig. 12. SI-,/ID(VD) fromohmictosaturation region in weak inver-
sion. Transistorfrom classical technology,notimplanted. T= I I 1
theorcticalexpressions
77 K ; f = 0.2 Hz; ID saturation = 2.7 nA; 2 = 200 pm;L = 15 pn1. degeneration no longervalid

This essential influence of Ci,on noise characteristics is cer-


tainlyoneofthe reasons why Aoki et al. [25] got similar
decreasing
abnormal noise characteristics on their devices, eve1at
moderate -----, trapdecreasing
300 K: indeed, they used transistors with a high Dit(--3 to density up to
4 X 5.1011 eV-l * cm- at 300 K). Similarly to our mearure- I I
deaeneration
I

ments, they also observed more excess noise at 77 K thzn at


300 K.
all the gap regions investigated, the trap density extending for
D. Noise at Low Temperature: Variation Versus VD our measurements from approximatelycmd3 * ev-l
to
In the previous study we have analyzed the term SID/IA(VG) 6 X 10l6 cm-3 eV-.
at low drain bias. When VD increases, the pseudo-Fermi level ii) On the other hand, transistors of LOCOS technology ex-
Epn varies along the channel. This behavior has a same e rfect hibit low Di, values at room temperature but rapidly increas-
as a decrease of VG at constant V, that leads (as show1 by ing Di, values atliquid nitrogentemperature, i.e., near the
Figs. 8-10) to an increasing noise level. Therefore, we must conduction band. In the same way, although the trap density
observe an increase of the noise with V, up to saturation and is one order of magnitude smaller than for classical transistors
a constant level after saturation. Such a behavior should also in weak inversion at 300 K, it rapidly increases in strong inver-
beobserved at 300 K in weak inversion for transistors with sion and at low temperature when the Fermi level approaches
high Ci,. the conduction band. Thus the trap density here varies by a
We represent on Fig. 12 a typical experimentalSI,/I& :VD) factor of 150instead of 6 for classical transistors.
curve for a transistor in weak inversion regime. As explcined As has been observed by many authors inpreviousrecent
above, the noise level increases for VD < VD sat and is 3rac- experiments [26]-[29], D j , ( E ~ and
) N,(EF) here show well-
tically constantfor VD > VDsat. We can conclude tha: the correlated variations for all the transistors studied. However,
noise increases with VD up to saturation as it can be pred.cted no systematic measurements of Djt(EF)profile have been per-
from the S+,/Ih( V,) characteristics a t low drain bias. (This formed to try to relate Nt to Di,. It must be pointed out that
in order to have the best meaning, this relation should be ob-
result agrees with the measurements at 300 K in weak iwer-
tained in the case of measurements at the same temperature
sion, where the constant noise level versus VD was a s s o u t e d
and the same bandgap region exploration. For these reasons
with the characteristicplateau.)
it appears that noise measurements on transistors of different
E. Trap Distribution technologiesand showing aplateauin weak inversion (i.e.,
witha very well-defined noise andtrap level whatever the
By comparing theexperimentalmeasurements with the
current is), associated to Dit measurements in weak inversion,
theoretical expression (4), it is easy to obtaintheexperi-
could bring very reliable informations about the possible cor-
mental variation N,(VG), and then the N@F) profile ill the
relation betweenDi, and N,.
forbidden gap of the silicon for each device.
Since we only mademeasurements attwotemperatures,
F. Mobility Noise
(room and liquid nitrogen temperatures), and in order nl>t to
degenerate thetransistor instronginversion atroomtem- Since the firstdevelopments of themobilityfluctuation
perature, it has not been possible to obtain the whole plofile model for I/f noise in MOS transistors [ I ] , [2], [30], many
N,(EF) in the silicon gap of the device. The typical traF pro- attempts [31]- [33], have been made to try to choose, about
files of each technology, classical and LOCOS, are desc:ibed the fundamental origin of llfnoise, between this new theory
in Table 11. and the well-known McWhorter trapping theory. Another idea
The trap profile N,(EF) exhibits characteristic variatiors for is to try to explain the often obtained contradictory results
each technology studied: with a unifiedempiricalrelationshipincluding both theories
i) Transistors of classical technology, which exhibit low Dit [27], [34]. However, one of the main problems of such a dis-
values at room temperature and slowly increasing Di, values at crimination lies in our poor knowledge of essential effects in-
liquidnitrogen temperature, have slowly varying N,(Eo) in fluencing the variations of the modified Hooge constant [2]
REIMBOLD: l/f TRAPPING NOISE THEORY AND EXPERIMENTS IN MOS TRANSISTORS 1197

a = c q ( / ~ / p ~where
) ~ , a1 is of the order of2.IOw3,p1 is the ACKNOWLEDGMENT
value tlhat the mobility would have if only lattice scattering The author wishes to thank Dr.A. Chovet and Prof. P. Gentil
had been present, and y is the carrier mobility. As long as the for initiating this work, for useful discussions and guidance,
exact physical mobility dependence on the competing scatter- andfor criticalreading of themanuscript.Theauthor also
ing mechanisms and on parameters like electric fields is not thanks B. Munier, M. Arques, J. P. Reboul,and Y . Thenoz
clearly defined, it appears that only measurements indiffer- from the DTE division of Thomson-CSF for helpful discussions
entcharacteristic regimes (allowing comparisons and cross- for supplying the devices.
checkings by the analysis of parameters showing typical and
well-known transition instead ofcontinuous variations) will REFERENCES
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Significant Photodiode Quantum Efficiency


Improvement and Spectral Response
Alteration Through Surface Effects
in Vacuum

Abstract-Surface effects stemming simply from photodiode opera- call this d. Then, for a device using a single pass of the incident
tion in vacuum environment are seen to improve quantum efficiency light
significantly. This is attributed to desorption of surface impurities and
consequent reduction of surface recombination and Debye length Ef- 77 = (1- r) [Pt (1 - P>(1 - e-ad)/adt e-aYd(l- e-aw)]
fective depletion layer width, because of junction shallowness, C ~ I alsoI
be noticeably affected by changes in surface potential and free charge (1)
redistribution stemming from desorption of surface iqpurities. Quantum
efficiency enhancement here in vacuum is greatest at visible wavele~rgths, where a is absorption coefficientof the semiconductor material,
thus suggesting application in solar cell technology, particularly since P is collection efficiency at the frontsurface, and Wis depletion
Zsc, Voc, and fill factorare all increased in vacuum. layer width. The square-bracketed part of (1) describes inter-
nal quantum efficiency [4].To decrease reflectivity, an anti-
I. INTRODUCTION reflection passivation coating is generally applied to the photo-
diode front surface [3]. Intermsofgeometry, improved
A SSUMING all current carriers photogenerated in the ,lune-
tion depletion layer are collected, net photodiode cpan-
tum efficiency 17 is limited by light reflectivity r o f the dwice
quantum efficiency requires decreasing d and increasing W.
However, losses between the front surface and junction deple-
tion layer can also be reduced by other means, i.e., by reducing
entrance face and the loss of photons absorbed between the
surface recombination current [ 5 ] , [ 6 ] through surface space
front surfaceand the junction depletion layer [ l ]-[3]. We
charge reduction [7]. This improves the collection efficiency
since more surface photogeneratedcurrent carrierscan then
Manuscript received April 25, 1983; revised April 9 , 1 9 8 4 diffuse down to the junction depletion layer [SI. To this end
TheauthorsarewiththeDepartment of ElectricalandCoqputer
Engineering,Ben-GurionUniversity of the Negev, Beer-Sheva,Israel various techniques have been applied and found to be some-
84 120. what successful in increasing quantum efficiency. Such tech-
0018-9383/84/0!?00-1198$01.000 1984 IEEE

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