Impact of STI stress on hot carrier degradation in 5V NMOSFET

The effects of shallow trench isolation (STI) induced mechanical stress on hot carrier degradation of 5V NMOSFET with different source(S)/drain(D) areas are studied. It is found that increased compressive STI stress with S/D area reduction can enhance the drain side impact ionization rate due to band gap narrowing effect which results in more hot carrier generation. TCAD simulations are also performed to explain the hot carrier degradation dependence on STI stress.