Abstract:
Metal–nitride–semiconductor FETs (MNSFETs)
having channel lengths down to 100 nm and a novel jet vapor
deposited (JVD) Si3N4 gate dielectric have been fabricated and
characterized. When compared with MOSFETs having a thermal
SiO2 gate insulator, the MNSFETs show a comparable drain current
drive, transconductance, subthreshold slope and pre-stress
interface quality. A novel charge pumping technique is employed
to characterize the hot-carrier induced interface-trap generation
in MNSFETs and MOSFETs. Under identical substrate current
during stress, MNSFETs show less interface-state generation and
drain current degradation, for various channel lengths, stress
times and supply voltages, despite the fact that the Si-Si3N4
barrier (2.1 eV) is lower than the Si-SiO2 barrier (3.1 eV). The
time and voltage dependence of hot-carrier degradation has been
found to be distinctly different for MNSFETs compared to SiO2
MOSFETs.