A General and Reliable Model for Charge Pumping—Part I: Model and Basic Charge-Pumping Mechanisms

Starting from a rigorous analysis of the charge-pumping (CP) mechanisms, a general CP model, which accounts for capture time constant distribution (TCD) that exists at Si -SiO₂ interface, is derived. By doing so, CP curves of state-of-the-art MOS devices are extremely well simulated. It is remarkable as this is achieved in a large range of experimental conditions, confirming the reliability of the approach. The interpretation of the TCDs in terms of distance from the Si- SiO₂ interface through carrier tunneling, as used initially, is discussed in the light of recent results which show that the traps which dominate at the Si-SiO₂ interface in fully processed devices, at least down to 10⁹ eV¹middotcm^-2, are acceptor-like in the upper part of the bandgap, donor-like in its lower part and are amphoteric, i.e., have the properties of the P_b0 centers. As the model allows the energy and depth regions probed to be known in all experimental conditions, this paper focuses on the basic CP features at the Si-SiO₂ interface and toward the insulator depth. For that, one of the standard CP curves is used.