Impact ionization and photon emission in MOS capacitors and FETs

This paper addresses the problem of the origin of majority and minority carriers' substrate currents in MOS devices. In particular, we present a critical analysis of published and original tunneling experiments by means of a novel, physically based model of impact ionization and hot carrier photon emission and re-absorption in the substrate. The model explains some relevant features of substrate minority carrier currents in saturated nMOSFETs, and provides a better understanding of the origin of substrate currents in tunneling MOS capacitors.