Origin of temperature-sensitive hole current at low gate voltage regime in ultrathin gate oxide

Abstract

The carrier-separation characteristics of a p-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor with 29 Angstrom gate oxide has been measured at various temperatures from 90 to 375 K. It is found that the gate and source/drain currents at low gate voltage regime (below 0.5 V) were correlated and strongly dependent on temperature above 250 K. The earlier observation has been attributed to the existence of a temperature-sensitive hole direct-tunneling current due to the strong temperature sensitivity of surface hole's concentration at low voltage regime. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)03018-1].