On the Apparent Non-Arrhenius Temperature Dependence of Charge Trapping in IIIV/High- ${k}$ MOS Stack

Operating temperature has a significant impact on the reliability of metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs). In Si-channel MOSFETs, the effective density of charged oxide defects (ΔN
_eff
) at operating condition typically shows an Arrhenius temperature dependence with E
_A
~ 0.1 eV. In contrast, apparent non-Arrhenius temperature dependence is reported here for InGaAs devices subjected to BTI stress in a wide range of temperature (77-373 K). This apparent non-Arrhenius temperature dependence is explained here by the presence of three distinct populations of electron traps. Capture- emission-time maps are derived from the experimental data, and are modeled by three bivariate distributions of energy barriers for the capture and emission processes. The total ΔV
_th
measured in bias-temperature-instability experiments reflects different contributions from the three defect populations, depending on the chosen temperature range, and on the measurement timing. We show that a correct description of the three defect distributions is crucial to properly assess their impact on the device performance.