Effects of gate notching profile defect on performance characteristics of short-channel NMOSFET with channel length of 0.12 μm

In this letter, we report the effects of gate notching on the performance characteristics of short-channel NMOS transistor with the gate oxide thickness of 32 /spl Aring/. The significant gate-notching defect into channel region brings about the serious degradation of such transistor performances as transconductance (G/sub m/) characteristic and subthreshold swing (S/sub t/), resulting in increases of threshold voltage (V/sub TH/) and leakage current (I/sub OFF/) and the considerable reduction of drive current (I/sub ON/). We will suggest the local thickening of gate oxide as a main mechanism of its effects and show that lack of gate-to-source/drain extension (SDE) overlap may be an additional reason for the degradation of I/sub ON/ with increasing the notch depth.