Impact ionization and photon emission in MOS capacitors and FETs

This paper addresses the problem of the origin of majority and minority carriers´ substrate currents in MOS devices. In particular, we present a critical analysis of published and original tunneling experiments by means of a novel, physically based model of impact ionization and hot carrier photon emission and re-absorption in the substrate. The model explains some relevant features of substrate minority carrier currents in saturated nMOSFETs, and provides a better understanding of the origin of substrate currents in tunneling MOS capacitors.