We present and validate a physics-basedmodel for hot-carrier degradation. The
model is based on a thorough carrier transport treatment by means of an exact
solution of the Boltzmann transport equation. Such important ingredients
relevant for hot-carrier degradation as the competing mechanisms of bond
dissociation, electron-electron scattering, the activation energy reduction
due to the interaction of the dipole moment of the bond with the electric
field as well as statistical fluctuations of this energy are incorporated in
our approach. The model is validated in order to represent the linear drain
current change in three different devices subjected to hot-carrier stress
under different conditions. The main demand is that the model has to use a
unique set of parameters. We analyze the importance of all the model
ingredients, especially the role of electron-electron scattering. We check
the idea that the channel/gate length of the device alone is not enough to
judge whether electron-electron scattering is important or not and instead a
combination of the device topology and stress conditions needs to be used.
Modeling of hot-carrier degradation based on thorough carrier transport treatment