Monitoring the temperature rise in SOI transistors by measurement of leakage current

The peak temperature rise due to self-heating in the silicon body of an n-channel transistor was measured by monitoring the leakage current as a function of the maximum power density. The transistors were fabricated using SIMOX technology where the equivalent of 1.8×10 ¹⁸ O⁺ ions/cm² were implanted at an energy of 200 keV followed by an anneal at 1300°C for 6 h. The technique requires a contact to the body region with which to monitor the leakage currents. A significant temperature rise is observed for low power densities. The advantage of this techinque is that peak temperature rise is measured in an actual transistor from a simple measurement and analysis. Furthermore, the enhanced leakage current, which the technique measures, provides an additional source of base current for the parasitic lateral bipolar transistor