Hysteretic drain-current behavior due to random telegraph noise in scaled-down FETs with high-κ/metal-gate stacks

This work demonstrates for the first time that hysteretic effects associated with random telegraph noise (RTN) can lead to the short-term enhancement of drain current in the turn-on transient of scaled-down FETs. Comprehensive time domain analyses of this hysteretic behavior prove that it is a consequence of the voltage-dependence of the capture and emission rates of the RTN traps, which is measured deep into the subthreshold regime using a new technique. Relevant trap parameters are proposed and statistically accumulated. Understanding and characterizing this temporal behavior is essential to determining the impact of RTN on scaled SRAM operation. ©2010 IEEE.