IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, VOL. ED-19,NO.

2, FEBRUARY 1972 273

itance diode with largefigure-of-merit,” IRE Trans. Electron
Devices, vol. ED-8, pp.370-377, Sept. 1961.
[j] M . Shinoda, “Capacitance of the hyperabrupt junction fabri-
cated with alloy diffusion technique,” J . Inst. Electron. Commun.
Eng., Jup. (Abstracts), vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 14-15, 1964.
[6] T. Sukegawa, K. Fujikawa,and J . Nishizawa,“Siliconalloy-
diffused variable capacitance diode, ’I Solid-state Electron., vol.
6, no. 1, pp. 1-24, 1960.
[7] S. Nakanuma, “Siliconvariablecapacitancediodes with high
voltage sensitivity by low temperature epitaxial growth,”IEEE
Trans. Electron Devices, vol. ED-13, pp. 578-559, July 1966.
[SI P. Brook andC. S. Whitehead,“Hyperabruptjunctions in
Au-Si Schottkydiodesbyion-implantation,” Electron. Lett.,
vol. 4,no. 16, pp. 335-337, 1968.
191 M. P. Lepselter and S. M. Sze, “Silicon Schottky barrier diode
with near-ideal I-V characteristics,” Bell Syst. Tech. J., vol.
47, p. 195, 1968.
[lo] J. W. Mayer, L. Eriksson, and J. A. Davies, Ion-Implantation in
Semiconductors. Kew York: Academic Press.
[ l l ] R. A. Moline, “Ion-implantedphosphorus in silicon:Profiles
using C-Vanalysis,” J. Appl.Phys., Aug. 1971.
[12] R. W. Treible and R.A. Moline, unpublishel.

Theory and Experiments on Surface l / f Noise

HORNG-SEN FU, MEMBER, IEEE, AND. CHIH-TANG SAH, FELLOW, IEEE

Absfracf-A theoretical low-frequency noise modelforthe [18]. In adopting McWhorter’s tunneling model, these
epitaxial-channel surface field-effect structure is presented where authors assumed that carriers in conduction or valence
random modulation of the channel conductance arises from fluctua-
tion of charges trapped at the oxide trap states near the Si-SiOz
bands tunnel directly into the surface states which are
interface. In this model, charge fluctuation in the oxide traps arises located at some energy in the semiconductor bandgap
from c,arrier tunneling between the fast interface surface states and and at some distance away from the hterface in the
the oxide trap states. A second fluctuation, at higher frequencies, surface oxide. Electron energyof about half of the semi-
arises from the random thermal emission and capture of electrons conductorgap (-0.5 eV) mustbedissipated. I t was
and holes at the fast interface states through the thermal or Shockley-
Read-Hall process. Different oxide trap densities were introduced
shownbyKane [19] thatneithertheauger-impact
into the interfaceregion of the metal-oxide-siliconfield-effect mechanism, nor the photon mechanism, nor the multi-
structures using a carefully controlled and reproducible oxygen heat photon processes are plausible. Thus, an intermediate
treatment technique. Energy distributions of the oxide trap densities s t a t e is essential.
are obtained from capacitance measurements. Humps are observed Inthispaper, a newmodel of carriertunneling
betwelen theflatbandandtheonset of strongsurfaceinversion
(lower half of the bandgap) in both the noise power and the oxide
throughanintermediatestate is
proposed t h a t is
trap density versus gate voltage(or surface band bending) plots. analogous to the tunnelingmodel used earlier to explain
Theoretical noise power calculations using the experimental oxide the excess currents observed in gold-doped silicon tun-
trap densityprofile fromthe capacitance-voltage data agree verywell nel diodes [20]. In this model, the carriers in conduction
with theexperimentalnoisehumpsinbothmagnitudesand fine orvalencebandscommunicatewiththe fast surface
structures. It is shown that the frequency spectra of noise depend
strongly on the oxide trap density profile in theoxide. It issuggested
states located at the interface through the Shockley-
that theoxide traps are due to the excess oxygen at theSiOz-Si inter- Read-Hall (SRH) process. T h e carriersthentunnel
face. into or out of the oxide traps located a t some distance
away from the interface elastically. This model is more
I.INTRODUCTION plausible than early models since it is well known that
thethermal SRH processis very efficient andthat
HE 1,’snoise has been studied by many investi-
continuous (in energy)distribution of fastsurface
gators. Early studies were primarily on germani-
states at the interface is a commoncharacteristic of
umfilamentswhosesurfaceswereexposed to
silicon-silicon-dioxide interface. In t.his model, a
differentambients.nlanydifferentmodelshavebeen
separate time constant for the tunneling process is then
proposed to explain the noise d a t a [1]-[9]. McWhorter
obtained, in addition to the Shockley-Read time con-
[ l o ] proposed -the tunneling model to explain the wide
stant. This is in contrast to the earlier models just re-
range of frequency spectrum observed in Ge filaments,
ferredtowherethetunnelingprocess is tacitlyab-
which has beenused by many authors to account for
sorbedintotheShockley-Readthermalcapturerate
the surface l/f noise in RlOS field-effect devices [11]-
coefficients.
I n gettingacorrelationbetweenthesurfacestates
Manuscript received March 23, 1971; revised September 18,1971. oroxidetrapsandthe l/f noise, themain difficulty
This work was supported in part by the U. S. Air Force Office of
ScientificResearch andthe AdvancedResearch Projects Agency. encounteredinthepreviousinvestigations lies in the
The work is based in part on the doctoral thesis of H. S. F u sub- lack of detailed data on the spatial and energy distribu-
mitted to the Graduate College of the University of Illinois, Urbana,
Ill. tions of the surface states. A certain type of spatial or
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering energy distribution was generally assumed a priori in
and the Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois, Ur-
bana, Ill. 61801. the earlier work. Recently, Sah and Hielscher [ l l ] have
274 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES,
FEBRUARY 1972

shownexplicitly t h a t a linearrelationshipbetwcm
surfacestatedensityandthe l/f noise exists. Th.:y DrainSection

demonstratedtheoccurrence of corresponding fi r1.e thin s l a b

structures in both the magnitude of the low-frequen.:y
noise and the surface state density as a function of c n -
ergy in the band gap. In this paper, a comprehensir.e
study of the l/f noise and the surface states or oxiil:e
traps will begiven. Thesurfacestatedensities a Id
distributions are obtained from capacitance measur e-
ments that are then used to calculate the noise P O M . ~
throughthe new theory,andcomparedtothe noisie
data. Epitaxial-channel silicon surface field-effect strt.c-
turesareused,sincethisallowsustoprobe a mu:h Fig. 1. Cross section and coordinate system for the
epitaxial n-channel MOS translstor.
wider range of energy in the bandgap in both noise anld
surface state measurements. These devices were fab a;-
f i x e d oxide
catedinourlaboratoryundercarefully control'l8:'d charge '4 dra(in
conditions, so that the oxide trap and interface states
are reproduced overa wide range of density. fast surfoce
state
T h e results will bepresentedinthreeparts.Fir,:,t,
electrode state)
a derivation of the noisepowerfrom the generatioil- gate
recombination-tunnelingkineticsbased on the new
model is summarized. Second, a small-signal equivale I t
circuit is given t h a t includes the SRH process betwel:ln
the fast surface states and the conduction or valen :e
bands and the tunneling process between the fast sur- source
face states and the oxide traps. This circuit is used 113
extracttheoxidetrapdensityfromthecapacitanx Fig. 2. Definitions of fast surface states and oxide
traps in an MOS transistor structure.
data. Finally, the experimental results on the surfa,:e
state or oxide trap density and the l/f noise power a re
presentedandcorrelatedtoeachotherthroughtll'e
theory developed.
i h
NOISETHEORY
11. SURFACE
Fig. 1 showsthecoordinatesystemandthe crcljs
section of theepitaxialn-channelsurface field-effe:t
transistor used in this analysis. With suitable notatic.m
changes,thisanalysiscanalsobeappliedtothe 3,-
channelas well. Fig. 2 showssomedefinitions of tlue X - I L X '

Metal Semiconductor
Oxide
terminologies used here. Surface states which occur 11
a n infinitesimally thin layer a t t h e interface (x=O, ; J ) Fig. 3. Energy band diagram and charge changing
processes in the epitaxial n-channel MOS transistor.
are known as fast surface states or interface states a r d
they can exchange charges readily with the conductic.111
and valence bands. Those states which are located at :i surface state can also tunnel into an empty oxide trap
certain distance away from the interface ( x = x , y ) a -13 located in the oxide at some distance away from the
known as slow surface states or oxide traps since t h t y interfaceandviceversa.Consideranemptysurface
cannot readily exchange charges directly with the co:1- state located at (x = 0 , y). It can capture an electron
duction or valence bands. The transition processes a r d from the conduction band at the same position in the
theenergybanddiagram of thedeviceareshown 11 channel[process (a)] and becomenegativelycharged.
Fig. 3. Thesetransitionmechanismsarediscussed 11 At the same time, an electron from the n+ source con-
more detail in the following sections. tact will drift into the channel to maintain the same
number of electrons. Since
electrons are
majority
A . Charge Trapping Mechanism carriershere,theelectrondrifttime is thedielectric
A fast surface state with energy level at ET with.11 relaxation time,
which is of the order of s [21].
the energy bandgap will act as a Shockley-Read-H::Il T h e foregoing capture processthereforecauses a net
recombinationcenter. I t will thermallycapture ele':- charge fluctuation at ( x = 0, y ) . The electrons captured
trons from the conduction band or emit trapped ele:- by the surface states can also be thermally excited to
trons to the conduction band. Similarly, holes will mal..^: the conduction band [process (b)] or recombine with a
transitions between the surface states and the valen1::e hole captured [process (c) ] from the valence band at
bandstates. A trappedelectronin t h e fastinterfa#::(: ( x = 0 , y). If the trapped electron is thermally excited
PU AND SAH: SURFACE I / ~ N O I S ~ 275

into the conduction band, i t will be swept away rapidly The net rate of change of electron and hole concen-
from ( x = 0, y) to (x‘, y ) by the surface electric field in trations in the conduction and vaSence bands, due to
the x’ direction, causing a net charge change a t (x = 0, y). capture and emission processes at the fast surface states
However, if a hole from the valence bandis captured by (neglecting all
other
generation--recombination
pro-
occupiedsurfacestates,there will be no netcharge cesses), and the net rate of change of trapped electrons
change a t (x = 0 , y)sinceholescannotcommunicate at the surface states and oxide traps (located from x to
with the external circu.it due to the large barrier from x+Ax fromtheinterface)canbeobtainedfromthe
surfacebandbending.Thesameapplies if a hole is rates of these processes. They are
thermallyexcitedfrom a surfacestate[process(d)].
dns-
- j N
Because the hole pocket is isolated from the external - (b) - (a) - -
circuit (there is no hole current), holetransitionsbe- at 4
tween the surface states and valence band states will
notinducenetchargefluctuationintheconduction
channel and thereforewill not give low-frequency noise.
A trap located in the oxide close to the interface can
exchange charge with the fast surface states or the band
states at the interface through tunneling. An electron
capturedbyafastsurfacestate will tunnelintoan
oxide trap at the same energy level [process (e)] located
a t a distance from the interface and induce a charge of wherejN is the density of electron drift current due to
q ( x , - % ) / x , a t (x = 0, y), where x. is the thickness of the the presence of the electric field, resulting in a shotnoise
oxide.Similarly,thereverseprocess[process(f)] will spectrum.
induce a net charge of - q ( x , - x ) / x , in the conduction
band. B. Charge Trapping Time Constants
In order to calculate the trapping time constants for The fluctuating components of ns, Psl nss, and nTO‘
thechargefluctuationsinthefastsurfacestatesand can be obtained from the foregoing equations by sepa-
oxide traps, the following parameters will be defined. rating the steady-state components. Let
Surfacedensities of electronsandholes,
respectively, a t t h einterface x = 0, in num-
ns = Ns + 6ns (34
ber/cm2. ps = Ps $. sps (3b)
Captureprobabilitiesforelectronsand nss = Nss +6nss (3 4
holes, reslpectively, by a sheet of interface
states, in cm2/s.
%TO‘ = 1VTO’ + &%TO‘ (3d)
Emissionratesforelectronsandholes, j~ = J N + sjN (34
respectively, from the interface states, in where NE, PB,NSS,NTO’,and J N are the sLeady-state
number/s. quantities and S denoted the fluctuating component.
Densities of electronsandholes,respec- The time dependence of 6ns, 6 p , ~&ass,
, and 8nTO’ can
tively,trapped in a sheet of interface beobtained by substituting (3a)--(3e) into (2a)-(2d).
states, in number/cm2. This involves four time constants whose exact solutions
Electronand holeconcentrations in the are tedious to obtain. However, the time constant for
oxide traps, innUmber/Cm.’(n’To( = nToAx) the conduction electron fluctuation 6ns is much shorter
and $TO’( = p r o a x ) are the sheet densities than those of the trapped charges 6p8, Gnss, and 6nTo’;
of electrons and holes, respectively, in the thus, this problem can be simplified by considering the
oxidetrapslocatedfrom x t o x + A x , in slower time constants only since we are interested in
number/cm2.) thelow-frequencynoise. The algebra is giveninAp-
Tunnelingprobabilitiesforelectrontun- pendix I. The time constants associated with 6nss and
neling into or out of a trap, in cmz/s. 6nTo’ are given by
The rates (number/cm2.s) of processes (a), (b), (c), 1
= .___
(d) , (e), and (f) in Fig. 3 can then be expressed as 78s
+$ ~-sI
c ~ ~ ~ ens - 4- eps
cPsPs
(44
I

where Tl = r l exp ( - 28x), T2= r 2 exp ( -28x), and

Here 0 is theattenuatingconstant [ 2 2 ] of thewave

216 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, FEBRUARY 1972

functions in the oxide; T ~ T, ~ and

, T~ are unknown c m -
stants; m* is the effective mass of electrons in the ox.itle;
1' is thepotentialbarrierbetweenthefast surlslce
state and theoxide trap; and F, is the Planck's const: nt.
I t is important to note that the transition probabili;ies
between the oxide trap states and the surface st: 1:es
comemainlyfromthosesurfacestateswith ener!,;ies
close tothetrapenergy level(elastic). Transiti ~ n s
between an oxide trap state and the states in t h e c m -
duction or valence bands are also possible(inelast I:),
butarenotimportantduetolargeenergychange. Fig. 4. Lumped
circuit model for a n MOS transistor.

C. Induced Charge Fluctuation in the Conducting Charinel

The net charge fluctuation per unit area in the c'm-
duction band of the conducting channel,~ Q N is, the s jm
of the induced charge due to the charge fluctuation:, in where Q N is the electron charge density per unit area
the surface states, oxide traps, and holes a t t h e inTa-- in the conducting channel and can be obtained from
face. T h a t is,
QN = S,D
n(x')dx'

+ shot noise term [5)

where D is the depth of the conducting channel and
n ( x ' ) is theelectronconcentration in theconducting
wherethefactor Cw/(Cw+Co) resultsfromthe f;tlct channel.
that the induced charges are shared by two capacitcts, To obtain thenoise voltage across the drain electrode,
Cw (depletion layer capacitance) and C, (oxide capz1c.i- a small-signal lumped model for the field-effect struc-
tance), and only those charges inducedin Cw appear iin ture is used [ 2 3 ] . This is shown in Fig. 4. The entire
theconductingchannel.Thefluctuation of 6ns is channel is divided into three subsections, namely, the
dropped sincei t has a very short time constant resulting thinslab,thesourcesection,andthedrainsection.
fromthepresence of thesurfaceelectricfield, 1vhic.h p, and e,, represent the amplification factor and the gate
sweepsout all thesurfaceelectronsintothe bCik signal of the source section, and ,ud and egd represent

region. I t is showninAppendix I that the domin2nt those of the drain section. 8 v d is the open-circuit noise
low-frequency term in ( 5 ) is the first term which con ICS voltage at the drain electrode, due to the fluctuationin
from electron tunneling into or out of the oxidetr:.p the thin slab at y , and is given by
states located a t a region from x t o %+Ax. Therefore,
the charge fluctuationS Q N is given by

This fluctuation is amplified by the drain section only.

T h e power spectrum of thefluctuation 6 v d , SavdAf,
where Af is the frequency bandwidth, can be obtained
'exp (- &) GnTo(o)Ax :') fromtheWiener-Khintchinetheorem.

where 6nTo(0) is the steady-state value of &To.

D. Surface Noise
The drain noise current 8 i d , which is induced by l.he
chargefluctuationsinthetraps,canbeexpressed as
follows :

where the relation [ 2 3 ] , [24]

where ,un is themobility of electronsand is assumEd
to be constant, 2 is the width of the conducting chan-
nel, and A V y is the dc voltage drop across the thin sl l b
of the semiconductor located fromy to y + A y along I: l e
conductingchannel(Fig. 1). Thevoltagefluctuation was used. w is the angular frequency, NTTo is the con-
across the thin slab, 6A V y , caused by the currentfluctLl;.- centration of oxide traps at x, a n d f t o is the equilibrium
tion 8 i d can therefore be related to AVY and is given 'l)y Fermi-Dirac occupation factor of the traps. The total
 PU AND SAH: SURFACE ~I~NOISE 277

TABLE I
PARAMETERS
OF THE N-CHANNELDEVICES HEATTREATMENT
AND OXYGEN (OHT) CONDITIONS

Substrate or Epitaxial Layer

Epitaxial Gate Effective
Layer Doping Channel Oxide Gate OHT
Area
Width
Thickness
Thickness
Density
Length
Orienta-
Device A Tempera-
Time
tion Type
Number ND(cm-8) Dbm) xo(A) Lbm) Z(pm) (10-8cma) ture(OC) (h)
-
__.__ -
1 n on p+ (111) 0.5X10’6 3.2 1188 51.2 2542 3 -25 none -
2 n on p+ (111)3.2 0.5 1320
3.25 51.2 2542 1000 0.5
3 n on p+ (111) 3.2 0.5 1216 51.2 2542 3.25 800 1.0
on n4a, b, c p+ (111) 3.2 0.5 1218 51:2 2542 3.25 600 24.0
5 n on p (100) 1.o46.5 1030 4.7 2547 3.14 none I

6 n on p (100)4.7 1.0 1040 46.5 2547 3.14 1000 0.5

7 n on p (100) 1.o 1150
46.5 4.7 2547 3.14 800 1.0
8
on n p (100) 4.7 1.0 1128 46.5 2547 3.14 600 24.0
9 n on p (1 00) 1.o 3.5 2 045 36.0 2570 2 73 600 96.0
10 n on p ( 100) 1.o 3.42 2080 50.0 2500 3.28 600 24.0
11 P (100) 5.0 nonepitaxial 1830 36.0 2570 2.66 none -
12 P (100) 5.0 -
- 1770
2100
36.0
36.0
2570
2570
2.70
2.94
none
900
I

13 P (100) 5.0 3.0

14 P (100) 5.0 - 1970 36 .O 2570 3.0 600 42 .Q

voltagefluctuationfromall of the traps in the oxide 111. DEVICEFABRICATION

for the entire channel is then given by T h e devices used in this study were fabricated in our
laboratory under carefully controlled and reproducible
conditions. A thick layer of oxide was first grown on a
chemicallyetchedanddegreasedsiliconslice. The
.- ’ N T T 0 f t 0 ( 1 -fto)T110 4 V Y windows forthe n+ islands were c u t using photoen-
(” ”)
__
+ 1 W2TT02 4Y
dVydz. (13)
gravingtechniques,then followecl b y a phosphorous
diffusion. T h e oxide was then stripped off and a thin
The factor fto(l-fto) in the integrand behaves like layer (about 1000 A) of silicon dioxide was regrown on
a 6 function and is peaked at the electron quasi-Fermi the surface in an ultrapure oxygen ambient a t 1000°C
level F n ( y ) (Fig. 3). Therefore,onlythosetrapswith and then withdrawn from the furnace in an ultrapure
energylevelcoincidingwith Fn(y) contributetothe argonambient. T o reducethesodiumcontamination
noise. Since F n ( y ) is a function of y along the length of andsubsequentdrift of thesurfacestatesand oxide
the channel [or V y ( y ) ] ,the noise measured at the drain traps,thiswas followed byaphosphorousgettering
electrode, which is biased t o V DV, is actually the sum cycle. T h e slicewas then broken into four pieces and
of the contributions from those traps with the energy eachwasprocessedseparately.Piecenumber 1 was
levels approximately in a range of 0.75 V DeV when V D used as the control. In order to control the amount of
is small (Aq5,=0.75AV~’ for n-type silicon with Fermi oxidecharges,pieces 2 , 3, and 4 wereheatedinthe
energy of 0.84 eV above the edge of the valence band, pure oxygen ambient (which will be called oxygen heat
where & is the surface potential and VC’ is the effective treatment or O H T in this paper) separately a t 1000°C,
gate voltage). Hence the smaller the V D ,the narrower 800°C, and 600°C for 0.5, 1, and 24 h , respectively.
theenergyrangeinthegapthatcanbeprobed.At Contact holes for drain and source electrodes were cut
small V D , thechannelcanbeconsideredasuniform, by the photoengraving process. This was followed by
and Q N , pd, and AV,/Ay areindependent of V,(y). aluminum evaporation forming the gate electrode and
AVy/Ay can then be replaced by VD/.L,where L is the sourceanddraincontacts.Tominimizeany possible
channel length, and pd<<l. Equation (13) can then be contamination, special care was given to maintaining
simplified t o the cleanliness of the slices throughout the processing.
T h e devicegeometry,doping,and O H T conditions
are given in TableI.

IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTSON OXIDETRAP

AND SURFACE STATE DENSITIES
and the short-circuitnoise current is T h e capacitance-dcgatevoltage (C- V ) character-
istics at different signal frequencies are used to obtain:
1) the total oxide and surface state charge density, Qo
(number/cm2); 2) the total (all timeconstants)oxide
trap and surface state density p(states/cm2 .eV); and
3) theoxidetrapdensity, pTT()(states/cm2.eV),asa
function of the time constant.
278 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, FEBRUARY 1972

I
1-
b
I
i

I
4
I
I -1 I.2 x 10j1
*r
-8 -7 .E -5 -4 -3 -2 - 1 0 1 I
'6 dol's I
I
/ a
IO" * I
Fig. 5. Low-frequency and high-frequency capacitance vers
..
1:3
the gate voltage curves for devices (4a), (l),and (5). \: o;,
.bZ
0 ?*
-7 -6 -5 -4
vc volts

Fig. 7 . Totaldensity of statesversusgatevoltagefor devices

fabricated on (111) surfaces acd oxygen heat treated at 600°C.

":
7

6t
B. Total Density of States p
The total (all time constants) oxide trap and surface
state density, p(states/cm*.eV), is obtained using the
Termantechnique [26] whichinvolvesthegraphical
5[
4 differentiation of the high-frequency C-V curves. T h e
resultsfortypical (111) samples with OHT at 600°C

jl
2-

__I.. I-L
_L-_.,..
Argon I
(units4aand4b)areshowninFig.
peakedsurfacestates
7 whichindicate
of 5 X l 0 l 1 states/cm2.eVat
E,+0.3 eV and 2.8X10" states/cm2.eV at E,+0.4 eV.
The larger peak at0.3 eV+E, compares favorably with
500 700 900 I100
thatobserved on theverythin oxidecapacitance
T"C
previously reported [ 2 7 ] .
Fig. 6. Fixed oxide charge density versus the temperatureof oxy;.en
heattreatment. 0 (111) n on p+; A (100) n on p; (1 I) w C. Oxide Trap Density
n-type(argon annealmg); 0 (111) n-type; A (100) n on p. PTTO

The frequency dependence of the oxide trap density,

A . Fixed Oxide Charge Density Qo pTTo(states/cm2.eV), is obtainedfromthefrequency
dependence of the C-V curves shown in Fig. 5. pTTo is
Typical C-V curves at different frequencies for d j"-
obtained from the measured C(f) and C(HFE1.50 kHz)
ferent OHT conditions are shown in Fig. 5. The norm;II-
using the small-signal equivalent
circuit
given
in
ized (to k T / q ) surface potential Us is also labeled f x
Appendix 11.
deviceunit4(a).Thesecurvesshowtheincreasi~ig T h e d a t aof pTTo are obtained from
surface state or oxide t r a p effect a t low OHT temper I-
ture
and low-signalfrequency. T h e oxide charl!:e
density Qo for each device is obtained by comparingtl .I?
high-frequency (150 kHz) C- V curves with the theoreli .
cal (zero surface states and oxide traps) C- 'L curves. Tl t: (see Appendix I1 for the derivation) where C T O is the
results are shown in Fig. 6 and compared with those I 11' equivalentparallelcapacitance of charginganddis-
the Deal's triangle [25] (solidline). I t is evident th: I. charging of the oxide traps by tunneling andis given by
the highest oxide charge density is obtained for a d t .
vicefabricatedona (111) surfaceandoxygenheat
treatedatthe lowest temperature (600°C). O H T zt
1200°C yields thelowestnumber of oxide charge!..
Heat treatment in an argon ambient at different teal-
peratures does notchangetheoxidechargedensitli
significantly.Similarresultsareobtainedfordevice,; T h e d a t a of C(w) and C(150 kHz) = C(00) are used t o
fabricated on a (100) surface,exceptthatthe oxidt: evaluate CTo(w) from (17). CFo(w) is then used to evalu-
charge densities are much lower. ate PTTO(W) from (16).
FU AND SAH: SURFACE l / f NOISE 279

I
'1

Fig. 9. Noise power versus gate voltage for device

Fig. 8. Oxide trap density, or oxide trap capacitance,versusgate (4a) with frequency as a parameter.
voltage, with frequency as a parameter, for device (4a).

10-20
A typical result of pTTo(w) is shown in Fig. 8 fora
(111)device O H T a t 600°C (unit 4a) where the total
density of states p(al1 w ) from Fig. 7 is also shown as
dashedlines.Humpsareobservedbetweentheflat
bandand
the
onset of strong surface
inversion
10-21
( U S = %Up). T h e secondary peak of p ( w ) a t E,+0.4 eV
is not
evident
in
the ~ T T O ( W )data
duetothe decreasing -
N

resolution a t higher
frequencies
(16).
using
when E
I

y -z
'v. EXPERIMENTA.L
RESULTSON 1/f NOISE e, A
lo-=
T h e noise power (short-circuit rms noise current) of
the devices was measured a t a drain voltage V Dof SO
mV, using a Hewlett-Packard 302-A wave analyzer, A
high-gain
low-noise
preamplifier
was
designed
for
these measurements. The drain voltage of SO mV cor-
respondstoabout 1.5 kT (at roomtemperature) of
energyspread.The noisemeasuredheretherefore is

A . Dependence on T r a p Energy bility of the fabrication technique on a silicon slice is

Fig. 9 shows the typical narrow-band noise power aas
function of gatevoltage V Q orsurfaceFermienergy
position E-E,, a t frequencies of 10,20,40,and100
H z for the (111) device O H T a t 6OO0C (unit 4a). Noise
a t higherfrequenciesdecreasesandbecomesdifficult
to detect due to amplifier noise because of the low drain
voltage used here. Large humps were observed at the
same surface Fermi level position, E,+0.4 eV, as the
humpsobservedonlow-frequency C-I/ plots and the
trapdensityplots(Figs. 7 and 8). Theextremeuni-
formity of the noise power attributed to the reproduci-
demonstrated in Fig. 10 for three devices (units 4a, 4b,
and 4c) at two frequencies, 10 and 100 Hz.
T h e effects of oxygenheattreat:ment on the noise
areshowninFig. 11. O H T increasesandshiftsthe
noise peaks toward more negative V Gdue to increasing
positive charge Qo. T h e solid curves show the relative
magnitudes of noise humps at f = 20 Hzfordevices
fabricated on the (111) surface and oxygen heat treated
a t differenttemperatures. I t is obvious that a lower
temperature OHT gives higher lo\nr-.frequency noise as
well as higher oxide charges Qo. The dashed curves show
280 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, FEBRUARY 1972

d
I000
2
1
1000
f Hz f tJ2
I I I I I I I (a> (b)
-7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -I 0
v, VOltS
Fig. 12. Noise power versus frequency a t different surface
potential ranges. (a) Device (4a). (b) Device (8).
Fig. 11. Noise humps versus gate voltage for devices (device n 1rn-
bers labeled as shown) fabricated on (111) surfaces (solid li 18,:s)
and (100) surfaces (dashed lines) and oxygen heat treated a t clif-
ferent
temperatures. @ 600°C; A 800°C; X 1000°C; 0
control.
t
thesimilar,plots fordevices fabricated on (100) 5;ur-
faces. Note that the noiselevels of the (100) devices
are lower than those of the (111) devices due to a lo-f.er
number of surface states. No significant noise h u m / ) is
observed for the control sample (unit 5) which also llad
no hump in theC-V plot (Fig. 5).

B. FrequencyS@ectrunz
-20 -I5 -I0 -5 0
T h e frequencyspectra of the noisewere obtailed v, vo115
for fixed gate and drain voltages. Fig. 12(a) shows the Fig. 13. Noise humps versus gate voltage a t f=20 Hz for devices
log-log plots of noisepower versus frequency for the (9) and (10). Curve @)-original; Curve @)-afterapositive
bias-temperaturetest;curve (c)-after sequentialpositiveand
(111) device O H T at 600°C (unit4a).Gatevoltage negative bias-temperature tests.
parameters are V c ( E - E E , )= -3.0 (1.0 eV), -5.6 :1,9.4
e17 main hump) and -8.0 (0.0 eV) V, which corresp m d
the noise peak. This implies t h a t devices fabricated on
to the surface accumulation, weak inversion, and strmg
(111) and (100) surfaces have different pZrTOdistribution
inversionregions,respectively. T h e slopes of the dot
since theslope of the power spectra (i,v2 versus f) is
tendtochangefrom 1.0 to about 2.0 asthesurace
sensitive to p r T o versus x in the oxide.
changesfromaccumulationtostronginversion.'The
slope a t V O= - 5.6 V (near the peak of the noise ve ':jus
V c curve) is about1.57.Forgatevoltages betv,c:en C. E f e c t of the Bias-Temperature Test and Phosphorous
-5.0and-6.0 V, the slopesfluctuatebetween 1.08 Gettering
to 1.62, as can be understood from Fig. 9. Slopes gre ater Because of the ion drift or the slow trapping effect,
t h a n 1.0 are attributed to the large spatial variatiorl of the bias-temperature test will cause the C- V curve (and
pTTo in the oxide. These slopes do not change sigr1,ifi- hence the noise humps) to shift along the gate voltage
cantly as the drain voltageof the device is increase1:l u p axis. T h e noise profiles of the device are measured be-
toandbeyondchannelcurrentsaturation (5.0 V). fore and after electrically stressing the device a t 250°C
This indicates that the noise measured beyond current for about 10 min under an electric field of lo6 V/cm.
saturation is generated mainly in the channel re :ion The results are shown in Fig. 13 for unit 9 (no phos-
nearthen+sourcecontact.The noisegeneratelf in phorous gettering)andunit 10 (withphosphorous
this region is amplified by the whole transitor.Fig. gettering[28]-[30]);both were (100) devices O H T
12(b) shows thesimilarplotsfor a (100) device Jiith a t 600°C. Curve ( a ) is the originalnoiseprofile, and
600°C OHT (unit 8). The gate voltages here also cor- curves ( b ) and ( c ) are the profiles after sequential posi-
respond to surface accumulation, weak inversion, m d tive and negative bias tests. Very different results are
strong surface inversion.A slope of 1.35 is observed near observed between these two devices. First, the magni-
FU A N D SAH: SURFACE 1/f NOISE 28 1

tude of the noise for unit 10 is much lower than that for
unit 9 [curves ( a ) ] ,Second, the direction of the shifts
on the noise curves (as well as C- V curves) are different.
For unit 9 (not gettered), a positive gate bias causes
the curve to shift to a more negative direction, and a
negative gate bias causes the curve to shift to a more
positive direction. For unit 10 (gettered), there is prac-
tically no shift. Third, the noise is essentially constant
(in fact i t decreases slightly for the nongettered unit 9)
after drift. The second and third observations indicate
that positive ion (sodium [31]) drift toward the inter- I

face does not affect the noise so that these ions are not .I
1 0 4 L -
the noise source, and the drift of negative ions, which IO" 10'2 1010 !O" 1012

could be the noise sources, might be present since the Q, tf/crn'

Q, k/crn2
l/f noise is reduced slightly after drift (unit 9). T h e (4 (b)
first observation suggests that the PzO6 layer (unit 10) Fig. 14. Noise ower versus fixed oxide charge density (at flat band)
forms a barrierpreventingtheoxygenfromreaching fordevices gevice numberslabeled as shown)fabricatedwith
different oxygen heat treatments.
the interface to form the oxide traps during low-tem-
perature OHT. In unit 10, a negative bias causes the
curve to shift slightly toward a more negative direction.charge densities of the devices with no sodium drifts
This is knownastheslowtrapping effect [32]-[33]. (a typical example is unit 10 inFig. 13) proves very
'This slow trapping effect was observed only on 6OO0C convincingly that theoxide traps near the502-Si inter-
OHT samples. KO shift was observed on (100) control face and the oxide charges are of the same origin (oxy-
samplesafterbias-temperaturetest.Thedevicethat gen) in these samples.
shows a larger slow trapping effectat elevated tempera-
ture also shows higher noiseat room temperature. Thus, VI. COMPARISON OF NOISEA.ND OX:IDETRAP
we suggest that the slow trapping effect might be origi- DENSITY DATA
natedfromtunnelingintoorout of theoxidetraps,
which also give rise to the noise. T h e experimentalresultsobtainedfromthetwo
Several authors [18], [34] have reported the use of preceding sectionsarenowcompareduthusdemon-
the bias-temperature stress t o create the surface states strating the one-to-onecorrespondence of theoxide
forstudyingthe noisecharacteristics, buttheoxide trap density and noise power as a funct.ion of the trap
trap density distribution in energy and position were energylevelorFermilevelposi-tion a t theinterface.
notobtained.Thus,adirectcorrelationbetweenthe This also serves to demonstrate that the l/f low-fre-
noise power and the surface state density could not be quency noise indeed originates from the oxide traps.
made. T h ed a t a of noise andoxidetrapdensityversus
surface Fermi level position or gate voltage are shown in
Fig.15(a)-(c). T h e verticalseparations of the noise
D. RelationBetweenFixedOxide Charge Densityand curves at higher frequencies are somewhat greater than
Noise Power those of the oxide trap density curves. Thenoise hump
I t was thought that the total oxide charge density Qo is also wider than the width of the corresponding oxide
and the oxide trap charge density PTTO (near the inter- trap densitycurve.These differencescomefrom the
face) are proportional Ell]. Hence Qo must be propor- factor T T O / ( 1 + w ~ T ~ owhich
~ ) appears in the integrand
tional to the l/f noise since the noise is proportional to of the noiseequation.Thisdifferencecan be easily
theoxidetrapdensity P T T O . I n Fig.14(a),the noise realized by comparing thefrequency dependence of
power in terms of theequivalent noise resistance the integrands of theand PTTO equations; that
is,
(referred to the gate) Rgn is plotted versus Qo for the
devices fabricated on p-type substrates and oxygen heat
treatedatdifferenttemperatures(theseareinversion
n-channel field-effect structures). A straight line rela-
tionship is observed.Fig.14(b)showsthenormalized
noisepowerplottedversus Qo forepitaxialn-channel
MOS field-effect devices fabricated on (111) and (100)
surfaces and oxygen heat treated at different tempera-
tures. Again a linear dependence is observed. The fact
that the noise power levels are proportional to the oxide
 282 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, FEBRUARY 1972

tI
t
6x

1 I

4.

I
V G "Oll5 vg "0115 10151 I I I I
6 4 2 0
(a> ( b') (c) x i
Fig. 15. Experimental correlations between noise power and ox de Fig. 16. Relative oxide trap concentration versus distance from the
traps for device (44. (a) Noisepowerversus gatevoltage. :I)) interfacefordevice ( 4 4 withgatevoltage as aparameter.
Oxide trap densitiesversusgatevoltage. (c) Totaldensity 'If
states versus gatevoltage.

T h e doubleandsharphumpsinthetotalsurfaze
statedensitydata of Fig. lj(c)comparedwitht!le
broader noise hump indicate that the surface states it
the main peak of E,+0.3 eV are probably rather f a s t
s t a t e s a troom temperature and hence do not contribu
:I
to much of the low-frequency noise observed. This i'j

also consistent with our earlier data for this peak which
had to be taken a t 130°K instead of 300°K to increa:r:
the time constants to a convenient range [27].

OF EXPERIMENTAL
VII. COMPARISON AND
THEORETICAL
NOISE CURVES
T o compute the theoretical noise power of the device
using (1j), the spatial distribution of the oxide tra 2,
concentration N T T ~ ( must x) be known. This is evaluate41
fromtheexperimentaloxidetrapcapacitancedate, -7 -6 -5 -4 -7 -6 -5 -4
shown in Fig. 8, which gave P T T O ( O ) and then NTTO(CO) v, v o l t 5 v, volts
= 4 0 k T p T T ~ ( w )Since
. most of the contributions to th': Fig. 17. Theoretical noisepower versus gate voltagecurvesusing
p ~ ~ o ( come
w) from the oxide traps a t OTTO = 1, we haw: experimental oxide trap concentrations given in Fig. 16 and ex-
perimental noise power versus gate voltage curvesfor device (4a).
NTTO(W)'VNTTO(~/'TTO). Hencefrom T T O = T O exp (20%'
and NTTo(u)= NTTO[ T ~ - , exp (- 20x) 1, the position o '

traps can be obtained from the signal frequency w.

i i ,
using the data given in Fig. 8. Excellent agreement is
value of T~ = s and f3-1 = 2 A wereusedinFig. 1 6 obtained between the theory and the experiment both
Change in T O will shift the relative trap concentratio1 in magnitude and shape. The experimental noise humps
along the x axis and a change in 6 will change the slopc a t V c = -6V(unit4a)and f = 4 0 , 100 H z donot
of the trapconcentration profile. However, thest appear in the theory due to the decreasing resolutionof
changes will notaffectthemagnitude of the noisc the CTo(w) d a t a a t higher frequencies, which was used
powersignificantlysince x<<xo. Sincethehorizontai to obtain N T T o ( x ) for noise calculation.
scale or the spatial spread ofN T T O ( Xshown ), in Fig. 16,
is proportional to B-l, N T T o will spread deeper into the VIII. CONCLUSIONS
oxide if a lower oxide trap tunneling barrieris taken (for A new theoreticallow-frequencysurface l/f noise
example due to coulomb lowering). model is presented that considers trapped charge tunnel-
Fig. 1 7 shows the theoretical noise curves computed ing between the fast surface states and the oxide trap
FU AND SAH: SURFACE I/f NOISE
283

states. The trapped charges communicate with conduc-

tion or valence bands via the thermal or S R H process.
I t is
demonstrated both theoretically
and
experi-
mentally that charge fluctuations in the oxide traps are
responsible for the surface l/f noise. The details pre-
sentedherecovertheweaksurfaceinversionrange,
since this is where the large humps appear in both noise
powerandtheoxidetrapdensity.Thefrequency
spectra of the noisedependstronglyonthespatial
distribution of theoxidetrapdensity. Anincreasing
density of the oxide trap as we go deeper into the oxide
from the interface is needed to account for the noise
power spectra l/f” with n greater than 1.0. I t is sug-
gested from the experimental evidence that these oxide
traps arise from excess oxygen a t t h e SiO2-Si interface.

APPENDIXI
Since I or1
, the reciprocal of the time constant for the
Shockley-Read-Hallrecombinationprocesses(a),(b),
DERIVATION
OF ’TIME CONSTANTS AND ~ Q N (c), and (d), is much larger than that of the tunneling
I t waspointed out inSection 11-A thatthetime
1
process y ] , we have1 011 >>I I.
y Hence in the inversion
constant of 6ns is much shorter than those of 6 $ ~ ,8n58,
range, we have l o r 1 -1
E l >>/PI, 171, Thetime 1111.
constants for Gnss and &??TO‘ can be approximated by
and 6 n ~ o ’ .Using (2a)-(2d), and neglecting an,, we have

which are also given as (4a) and (Lib).

By using (20) in (5), those terms containing 6nTo’(0)
are A13, Az3, and AM.Terms containing either Gns~(0)or
S$s(O) are much smaller than those containing&To’(O).
Hence (5) can be expressed as

-X
8QX = qsnTO’(0)
cw
cw
+ co [-
X0

X0
EO + y
X
- a1
X0

X
--dP+
X0
Y + E - S)a2]. (26)

If we concentrate only on thelow-frequencycom-

ponents, that is,thosetermscontainingexp ( X 3 t ) , we
have
 284 IEEE TRANSACTIONSON ELECTRON DEVICES, FEBRUARY 1972

APPENDIXI r
CIRCUITOF A N MO!:
SMALL-SIGNAL EQUIVALENT
STRUCTURE INCLUDING
THE TUNNELING PROCESI.:
T h e small-signal equivalent circuit which includes the
SRH process between the interface states and the con-
duction or valence band states and the tunneling prol::ess
betweentheoxidetrapstates(locatedfrom x to
x + A x ) andtheinterfacestatescan bederivedfrom r

(2c) and(2d)using(la)-(lf).Thedetailedmathe-
maticalderivations will bepresentedelsewhere. '!'he
effect of bulkgenerationandrecombinationin che
depletion layer is neglected here since i t was pointed out
by Nicollian and Goetzberger [ 3 6 ] that this effect 7,QilI
cause a constant high conductance in the strong invm- Fig. 18. Small-signal equivalent circuits for a n MOS structure in-
cluding thetunneling mechanism.(a) Withtraps located at x
sion range, which was not observed in this study. Fig. t o % + A x . (b) Equivalent parallel capacitance and conductance
18(a) shows the equivalent circuit for the traps local.t:d for the entire MOS structure.
in the range of Ax a t x . T h e circuit elements are gi-c,c:n
as follows: the equivalent parallel capacitance and conductance of
the oxide traps. They are given by
(..'9)

(37)
(23 )
By taking the derivativeof CTOwith respect to w and
using (34), (16) can be obtained.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
(33) Theauthors wouldlike tothank M. J. McNuttand
P. S. Chung,whohaveassistedinthetedious noise
q2 (3 L) measurements.
Ct, = - A ' ~ ~ o f t O (-ftD)
1 F/cm3
kT
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Correspondence

Calculation of Electron Drift Velocity a t Si Avalanche a n almostsphericallycarrierdistribution is considered [ l ] t o t h e

relatively low field case where the effective part of the distribution is
PETER C.Y.CHEN spike-shaped [2]. In this correspondence, a n alternative procedure
of the MATmethod is presented so that thesolution can be obtained
Abstract-In evaluating the electron drift velocity at Si avalanche, in a straightforward way. Furthermore, the temperature dependence
the electron distribution is obtainedby solving the Boltzmann trans- is studied byincluding both emission and absorption in optical phonon
port equation in the maximum anisotropy truncation (MAT) approx- scattering.
imation of Baraff. Improvements are made to the MAT procedure Under the case of a high electric field applied to a homogeneous
so thatthesymmetricalpart of thedistributionfunctioncanbe nondegenerate semiconductor, two fundamental scattering processes,
obtained in a straightforward manner. The temperature dependence opticalphononemission,andabsorptionandionization,arecon-
of electron drift velocity is studied by including both optical phonon sidered. A constant mean free path A is assumed for optical phonon
emission and absorption rather than emission alone. The calculated scattering. The opticalphonon is assumed to have an energy E R .
electron drift velocity varies from1X l o 7 to 2.9 X IO7 cm/s at Si ava- There is a threshold energy E { , below which no ionization occurs, and
lanche. above which the ionization mean freepath li, is constant. The distri-
bution function is expanded in a seriesof Legendre polynomials, Le.,
En this correspondence, the electron drift velocities a t Si avalanche
are calculated. So far, interests in semiconductor avalanche [1]-[5]
have been lirnited t o ionization rate studies. There has hardly been
any publication relatedt o electron drift velocity [6]. However, recent
work which uses IMPATT diodes as millimeter-wave solid-state sources where is the cosine of the angle between field and momentum, and a
(see, for example, 171) makes the drift velocity study at semicon- spherical parabolic band characterized by e = f i 2 / 2 m is assumed. Fol-
ductor avalanche useful for device analysis. This is understandable lowing the MAT scheme of Baraff, the first two of the well-known
from a device standpoint because the conventional Read-type an- infinite Boltzmann hierarchy of coupled-differential equations take
alysisfor p+n-n+ diodesbecomesquestionablein the millimeter- the form:
wave range in view of the fact that the transit-time effect in the
avalanche region cannot be neglected. Of course, it is also useful for 1
- QDWZI(E)
1 +
cosh (eHD eR/2hT)
studying silicon pvn avalanche transit-time diodes [ 8 ] .
Severaltheoreticalstudiesoncarrierdistributionfunctions at
3
= --
1 +r [ cosh ( e R / 2 k T )
semiconductor avalanche have been available in the literature [1]-
[4].In 1962, Baraff [9] published a n elaborate calculation of a dis-
+ Y exp ( d )
1
Mn(E) - m&) (la)
tribution functionwhose validity wasfirst verified inSi by comparing
thetheoreticalandexperimentalvalues of ionizationrate.Later,
Baraff [4] was able to show that the electron distributions thatwere
obtained by the use of a simple “maximum anisotropy truncation” where
(MAT) scheme to sclve the general Boltzmann equation agree well
with the more elaborate numerical calculation. This MAT method d
D = --> mo(e) = e ~ o ( e ) , MI(€)= E B I ( ~ ) ,
wasextended t o examine the warm electron distributions by the de
present author and C . A. Lee [lo]. The major merit of MAT is that Y = A/Ji, Q = eEl
it can give valid solutions for cases ranging fromthe high field where
with

Manuscript received August 23, 1971. This work was supported in part by the
l/l = l / A + l/li.
Air Force Systems Command, Rome Air Development Center, Griffiss Air Force
Base, N. Y . I t is noted that an exact relation m&+eH) =exp (enD)m&) is used
The author was with the School of Electrical Engineering, Cornel1 University, instead of the commonly used Taylor expansion. The value of Zi is
Ithaca, N. Y . He is now with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University
of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15213. to be regarded as infinite for energy below ei. In the Case where the