Monitoring hot-carrier degradation in SOI MOSFETs by hot-carrier luminescence techniques

This paper addresses the problem of hot-carrier degradation and lifetime monitoring in SOI MOSFETs by means of hot-carrier-induced luminescence measurements. The peculiar emission behavior of SOI devices is clarified over a broad range of bias conditions by means of comparison with that of BULK MOSFETs. It is shown that detailed analysis of hot-carrier luminescence measurements at different photon energies provides a noninvasive monitoring tool for various aspects of degradation, such as worst case bias conditions, threshold voltage shift, and variations of the electric field and hot-carrier population in the damaged region. The measured light intensity represents also a sensitive acceleration factor for the extrapolation of lifetimes to real operating conditions.