Evidence of reduced self-heating in strained Si MOSFETs

Pulsed measurements are used to investigate self-heating in strained-Si MOSFETs. From analysis of the data at elevated temperatures, the thermal resistances of the devices are extracted. These are found to be considerably lower than that obtained with a widely used theory. Thermal device simulations demonstrate that the discrepancy is due to an additional conduction path through the field oxide to overlapping aluminum contacts.