Suppression of hot-carrier effects in submicrometer surface-channel PMOSFETs

Hot-carrier-induced degradation in surface-channel (p-type polysilicon gate) PMOSFETs is investigated. Hot-electron-induced punchthrough is found to limit the lifetime of these devices. Although these surface-channel devices are observed to be more reliable than conventional buried-channel transistors, a lightly doped drain design is found to be necessary to provide adequate suppression of hot-carrier generation in 0.8- mu m-gate-length (L/sub eff/=0.5 mu m) transistors operated at 5 V.<
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