Improved Self-Curing Effect in a MOSFET With Gate Biasing

Stress-induced damage in a MOSFET can be cured by Joule heating, which can be produced by an intentional forward junction current (
${I}_{\textbf {FWD}}$
). This curing effect can be further enhanced by the simultaneous application of gate biasing, which does not influence the
${I}_{\textbf {FWD}}$
. A MOSFET was intentionally degraded by harsh hot-carrier injection (HCI) then the damage was cured and nearly returned to its pristine state. The improved self-curing effect was quantitatively verified using low-frequency noise (LFN) analyses. Self-curing by internal heat from the
${I}_{\textbf {FWD}}$
more effectively cured the HCI damage than a nonself-curing using external heat from a hot chuck.