Utilization of photon emission microscopy in determining drain junction property of submicron NMOSFETs

Photons are emitted from silicon MOSFETs and it has been known that they ar e closely related to the impact ionization which is caused mainly by hot ca rriers. In this study, we have used photon emission microscope to analyze d rain junction quality, especially silicide-silicon interface in the N+ drai n region. We will intend to show that a device with high drain sheet resist ance emits more photons than others even though the devices have identical hot carrier degradation characteristics. Furthermore, we found that the pho ton intensity profile can be used to check the quality of silicide-silicon interface. We confirmed the interface degradation of silicide thinning caus ed by agglomeration by taking TEM pictures of devices with unusually noisy photon emission profiles.