Stress-induced Degradation and Defect Studies in Strained-Si/SiGe MOSFETs

Effect of threading dislocations contributing to the increased 1/

f

noise in strained-Si MOSFETs is studied. Results of low-frequency noise study of strain-engineered MOSFETs are presented including 1/

f

and random telegraph noise (RTN). From the bias dependency of 1/

f

noise the correlated mobility fluctuation model (in NMOSFETs) is identified as the dominant noise mechanism. The low-frequency noise study reveals electrical stress-induced device degradation shown by the increased 1/

f

noise and complex RTN indicating reliability issues. A detailed low-frequency noise study in highly-scaled, strained MOS devices is presented indicating the capabilities of LF noise study for assessing device quality and lifetime essential in reliability analysis.