Impact of the Substrate Orientation on CHC Reliability in n-FinFETs—Separation of the Various Contributions

In this paper, we perform a comparative analysis of the degradation induced by a channel hot carrier (CHC) in bulk n-FinFETs with rotated (100) and nonrotated (110) sidewall surfaces. CHC degradation includes several components, and separating each contribution is necessary for identifying different mechanisms in devices with different surface orientations. First, the permanent and recoverable components are separated based on the recovery phenomenon after the CHC stress, ascribed to the electron detrapping from the oxide bulk defects. Then, the contribution of generated interface states to the permanent component is quantified by charge pumping measurements. The nonrotated bulk FinFETs showed higher threshold voltage degradation at the maximum bulk current stress condition due to the higher interface precursor defect density compared with the rotated devices. On the other hand, the rotated bulk FinFETs showed higher threshold voltage degradation at the stress condition of V
_G
= V
_D
due to higher bulk defect trapping, ascribed to the lower physical oxide thickness.