Characterization and analysis of gate-induced-drain-leakage current in 45 nm CMOS technology

Gate-induced-drain-leakage (GIDL) current in 45 nm state-of-the-art MOSFETs is characterized in detail. For the current technology node with a 1.2 V power-supply voltage, the GIDL current is found to increase in MOSFETs with higher channel-doping levels. In contrast to the classical GIDL current generated in the gate-to-drain overlap region, the observed GIDL current is generated by the tunneling of electrons through the reverse-biased channel-to-drain p-n junction. A band-to-band tunneling model is used to fit the measured GIDL currents under different channel-doping levels and bias conditions. Good agreement is obtained between the modeled results and experimental data.