Hot electrons and holes in MOSFET's biased below the Si—SiO2interfacial barrier

This work presents an investigation of low-voltage hot carrier injection in submicrometer size MOSFET's showing that for both electrons and holes it can take place even when the maximum energy to be gained by the applied field is less than the Si-SiO2interfacial barrier height. In the case of electrons, it is also shown that the injection process, due to Auger recombination at low applied drain-to-source voltages (VDS), is well described by the lucky-electron model (LEM) as soon as VDSexceeds the threshold for this to become applicable.