Three-Dimensional Electrostatics- and Atomistic Doping-Induced Variability of RTN Time Constants in Nanoscale MOS Devices-Part I: Physical Investigation

• Published in: IEEE transactions on electron devices Vol. 59; no. 9; pp. 2488 - 2494
• Main Authors: Castellani, Niccolò, Monzio Compagnoni, Christian, Mauri, Aurelio, Spinelli, Alessandro S., Lacaita, Andrea L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01-09-2012; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Atomistic doping; Compound structure devices; Correlation; Design. Technologies. Operation analysis. Testing; Dispersion; Electron traps; Electronics; Electrostatics; Exact sciences and technology; Flash memories; Integrated circuits; Integrated circuits by function (including memories and processors); Molecular electronics, nanoelectronics; random telegraph noise (RTN); semiconductor device modeling; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Three dimensional displays; Tunneling; variability; Atomistic doping; Doping; MOS structure; random telegraph noise (RTN); variability; Random telegraph noise; Modeling; Flash memories; Nanoelectronics; Semiconductor device; Three dimensional model; Non volatile memory; Flash memory; semiconductor device modeling; Integrated circuit; Silicon; Time constant
• ISSN: 0018-9383; 1557-9646
• DOI: 10.1109/TED.2012.2202910

This paper presents a detailed simulation analysis of the impact of 3-D electrostatics and atomistic doping on the variability of the random telegraph noise (RTN) time constants in nanoscale MOS devices. Results on a template decananometer Flash cell show that both the effects contribute to a large statistical dispersion of the capture/emission time constants of oxide traps placed at the same distance from the silicon surface, mainly due to nonuniform channel inversion. The statistical dispersion has an orders-of-magnitude increase when moving from the on-state to the subthreshold cell regimes and has major implications on the spectroscopic investigation of RTN traps, as will be discussed in Part II of this work.