Retarded thermal oxidation of strained Si substrate

Strained Si is recognized as a necessary technology booster for modern integrated circuit technology. However, the thermal oxidation behaviors of strained Si substrates are not well understood yet despite their importance. In this study,we for the first time experimentally find that all types of strained Si substrates(uniaxial tensile, uniaxial compressive,biaxial tensile, and biaxial compressive) show smaller thermal oxidation rates than an unstrained Si substrate. The possible mechanisms for these retarded thermal oxidation rates in strained Si substrates are also discussed.     

超短沟道绝缘层上硅平面场效应晶体管中热载流子注入应力导致的退化对沟道长度的依赖性

随着场效应晶体管(MOSFET)器件尺寸的进一步缩小和器件新结构的引入, 学术界和工业界对器件中热载流子注入(hot carrier injections, HCI)所引起的可靠性问题日益关注. 本文研究了超短沟道长度(L=30–150 nm)绝缘层上硅(silicon on insulator, SOI)场效应晶体管在HCI应力下的电学性能退化机理. 研究结果表明, 在超短沟道情况下, HCI 应力导致的退化随着沟道长度变小而减轻. 通过研究不同栅长器件的恢复特性可以看出, 该现象是由于随着沟道长度的减小, HCI应力下偏压温度不稳定性效应所占比例变大而导致的. 此外, 本文关于SOI器件中HCI应力导致的退化和器件栅长关系的结果与最近报道的鳍式场效晶体管(FinFET)中的结果相反. 因此, 在超短沟道情况下, SOI平面MOSFET器件有可能具有比FinFET器件更好的HCI可靠性.