Shubnikov-De Haas Oscillations Caused by a Two-Dimensional Leakage Channel on Silicon Mosfets Induced by Electron Irradiation

A possible failure mechanism of n-channel MOSFETs exposed to ionizing radiation are leakage currents between source and drain. This leakage begins to occur at relatively low radiation doses, and can seriously degrade the performance of an otherwise hardened CMOS device. In the present paper, we demonstrate by the observation of quantum oscillations in the magnetoresistance that by room temperature irradiation with high energy electrons an inversion layer is generated under the field oxide, which gives rise to leakage currents. Magnetoresistance oscillations may be observed, if in a degenerate electron gas the carrier mobility is sufficiently high to allow quantization of the electron movement in a magnetic field and the thermal energy is much smaller than the cyclotron energy. This oscillatory behaviour of the electrical resistance as a function of a magnetic field - the Shubnikov-de Haas effect - is a valuable tool to investigate the electronic parameters of bulk semiconductors and surface channels. Such experiments not only give firm evidence about the existence of a bypass inversion layer, but also yield information about the carrier density in the radiation induced channel. It turns out that the electrons behave like a two-dimensional free electron gas the density of which is independent of the gate voltage. Moreover, the experiments give knowledge about the influence of trapped charges, caused by the irradiation at the interface.