Experimental verification of the mechanism of hot-carrier-induced photon emission in n-MOSFET's with a CCD gate structure

New experimental data are presented to verify the physical mechanism of hot-carrier-induced photon emission in n-MOSFETs. The multiple gates are biased to create hot electron populations either at the drain junction or at the interelectrode gap regions by using MOSFETs with an overlapping CCD (charge coupled device). Results show that the magnitudes of the photon-generated minority carrier collected were comparable for hot-carrier-induced photons emitted from the drain junction and from the interelectrode gap regions, although the density of charged centers available for Bremsstrahlung for both situations differed by about two orders of magnitude. These results show unambiguously that Bremsstrahlung of hot electrons in the Coulomb field of ionized drain dopants is not the sole mechanism responsible for hot-carrier-induced photon emission in n-MOSFETs.<>