Early stage hot carrier degradation of state-of-the-art LDD N-MOSFETs

A detailed investigation of the hot carrier degradation of submicron LDD n-MOSFETs reveals a new early stage degradation regime, which deviates from power law behaviour. The quantitative analysis obtained through extraction of drain series resistance and mobility shows a two-stage drain series resistance degradation. For the first time, the degradation in the spacer region is clearly distinguished from that in the channel region of the device. For the technologies under investigation, the damage is seen to spread to the channel within 10 seconds, far earlier than reported in the literature.