IMPACT OF THE FREE-ELECTRON DISTRIBUTION ON THE RANDOM TELEGRAPH SIGNAL CAPTURE KINETICS IN SUBMICRON N-METAL-OXIDE-SEMICONDUCTOR FIELD-EFFECT TRANSISTORS

In this letter, the role of the free electron distribution on the capt ure kinetics of repulsive random telegraph signals in deep submicron n -channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors is studied . The inversion layer density and profile is varied by changing simult aneously the substrate and the gate bias of the transistor which is in linear operation at a constant drain current I. Detailed results are obtained for a class of repulsive trap centers when charged by an elec tron, which show a I-m variation of the capture time constant, with m> 1. Such a nonstandard behavior can be understood in the framework of t he Coulomb blockade model, whereby the image charge of the trapped car rier is stored on the gate electrode and in the inversion and depletio n layer in the silicon substrate. As is shown here the capture time co nstant is a unique function of the ratio of the inversion layer surfac e density and the squared thickness of the inversion layer. (C) 1998 A merican Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(98)00643-3].