Analysis of electron Tunneling components in p+ poly-gate p-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors from direct tunneling region to Fowler-Nordheim region

In this paper, we propose a method of analyzing electron tunneling components in the inversion mode of p(+) poly-gate p-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors from the direct tunneling (DT) region to the Fowler-Nordheim (FN) region. In order to avoid the uncertainty of determining tunneling current-voltage (I-V) fitting parameters, the quantum yield measurement at different gate oxide thicknesses can have potential applications in identifying the tunneling components as follows: (i) in the DT region, electron tunneling still originates from the valence band edge; and (ii) particularly in the FN region, interface-state-assisted FN tunneling dominates electron current and lies between the Fermi level and the valence band edge, instead of the Fermi level as a reference energy level proposed by Pompl et al. [European Solid-State Device Research Conf., 2000, p. 292]. This results in a revised voltage-dependent barrier height for the calculation of FN tunneling.