Substrate bias dependence of breakdown progression in ultrathin oxide pMOSFETs

Negative substrate bias-enhanced oxide breakdown (BD) progression in ultrathin oxide (1.4 nm) pMOS is observed. The enhanced progression is attributed to the increase of hole-stress current resulting from BD-induced, channel-carrier heating. The carrier temperature extracted from the spectral distribution of hot-carrier luminescence is around 1300 K. The substrate bias dependence of post-BD hole-tunneling current is confirmed from measurement and calculation. The observed phenomenon is particularly significant to ultrathin gate oxide reliability in floating substrate (SOI) and forward-biased substrate devices.