Universal Mobility-Field Curves for Electrons and Holes in MOS Inversion Layers

The mobility of carriers in a silicon surface inversion layer is one of the most important parameters required to accurately model and predict MOSFET device and circuit performance. It has been found that electron mobility follows a universal curve when plotted as a function of an effective normal field regardless of substrate bias, substrate doping (≤ 10^17 cm-3) and nominal process variations [1]. Although accurate modeling of p-channel MOS devices has become important due to the prevalence of CMOS technology, the existence of a universal hole mobility-field relationship has not been demonstrated. Furthermore, the effect on mobility of low-temperature and rapid high-temperature processing, which are commonly used in modern VLSI technology to control impurity diffusion, is unknown.