5.1.2.7 Effect of the Lattice Temperature on the Channel Tunneling

The lattice temperature enters the gate tunneling current via the electron energy distribution functions in the polysilicon gate and in the channel. The transmission coefficient, being based on quantum-mechanical reasoning alone, is not affected by the lattice temperature. However, the supply function depends on the lattice temperature. The impact on the gate current density is shown in Fig. 5.9. Rising temperature increases the tunneling current density in all cases.

Figure 5.9: Effect of the lattice temperature on electron tunneling current (left) and hole tunneling current (right) in an nMOS (top) and a pMOS (bottom) with 2 nm dielectric thickness, 1e20 cm-3 polysilicon and 5e18 cm-3 substrate doping.

A. Gehring: Simulation of Tunneling in Semiconductor Devices