Effects of Polysilicon doping on characteristics of

MOSFET and Comparison of drift diffusion and

Hydro-dynamic models for different gate lengths for
a fixed polysilicon doping
Nalluri Mohan Krishna
Department of Electrical Engineering
Arizona State University
Tempe, United States
mnalluri@asu.edu
ASU ID:1206405755

Nareen Molleti

Venkata Chaitanya Nitta

Department of Electrical Engineering

Arizona State University
Tempe, United States
nmolleti@asu.edu
ASU ID:1206339741

Department of Electrical Engineering

Arizona State University
Tempe, United States
vnitta@asu.edu
ASUID:1206450358

AbstractIn this paper, we discuss the range of

applicability of the drift-diffusion and hydrodynamic
models as applied to the study of Polysilicon doping effects
in MOSFET. The hydrodynamic model is an extension of
the standard drift-diffusion technique which determines
the electron and hole energies in addition to the carrier
concentrations and potential. The hydrodynamic method
can properly account for energy dependent phenomena
such as nonstationary transport phenomena and
thermionic emission currents. The comparison of Drift
diffusion and Hydro dynamic model for different channel
lengths are studied using the results simulated by
Sentaurus TCAD tool in case of N channel MOSFETs.
Index TermsDrift Diffusion, Hydrodynamic, Polysilicon.
(Key words)

I. INTRODUCTION
MOSFETS are of increasing important in semiconductor
applications and VLSI, To predict the performance of the VLSI
circuits, the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the semiconductor
device are required. The fabrication of devices is cost related so

it is very important to test the device using CAD tools to

predict the functionality and different effects on MOSFET
characteristics. Drift diffusion and Hydro-dynamic model are
used to study the devices characteristics.
Polysilicon; which is used as the gate electrode in MOSFETs;
is doped heavily to imitate the metal electrode. But polysilicon

gate differs from metal gate because; with the application of

bias to switch on the transistor; the gate itself is depleted.
However, the voltage due to this depletion is negligible in case
of heavily doped polysilicon gates. But gate depletion affects
the performance of the MOSFET if the gate is not heavily
doped.
In this paper MOSFET with different polysilicon doping
concentrations are simulated using Silvaco tool using both
drift diffusion and hydro dynamic model. The drain current
(Id) versus gate voltage (Vg) characteristics of the MOSFETs
are studied using Athena and Atlas. The intention of
simulation is to study the effects caused by polysilicon doping
variations and Comparison of Drift Diffusion and Hydro
Dynamic Model. So, simulations are done in a very simple
way. The mobility used in the simulations is the temperature
dependent bulk mobility. Simulation are done using default
lattice temperature (300K), at which electron and hole
mobilitys are respectively 1000 and 300 cm2/V.s.[3]
II. MATHEMATICAL EXPRESSIONS
Simulation for different polysilicon doping ranging from 1E19
to 1E22 are done and set of curves are plotted. For different
concentrations, the flat band voltages and the polysilicon
depletion voltages are calculated using the mathematics given
in the following sections.

A. Flatband voltage correction:

The flatband voltage is expressed using the following
EquationVfb=ms Qox/Cox. (1)
The first term is the work function difference between the
polysilicon gate and the substrate and the second term is the
voltage drop due to oxide interface charges.
But the second term in flatband voltage can be neglected
because the effect of oxide charges contributes less than
50mV to flatband voltage for thin gate oxides.
For highly doped polysilicon, the Fermi level lies near the
conduction band edge. The flat band voltage becomes:
Vfb = (-Eg/2)q - B .......................... (2)
where Eg is the silicon bandgap, Na is the doping
concentration of the substrate, ni =1.4 x 1010/cm3 ; is the
intrinsic carrier concentration of electrons or holes.
In Silicon at room temperature (300K) and the chemical
potential of the silicon substrate is B = (KT/q).ln(Na/ni); all
symbols having their usual meanings. We assume that at room
temperature KT/q =0.0259eV. The substrate doping
concentration is 1016/cm3.
When the polysilicon is doped moderately; the Fermi level can
no longer be assumed to lie near the conduction band edge.
So, a correction in flat band voltage is required. A new term;
the Fermi potential of polysilicon with respect to the intrinsic
Fermi potential in polysilicon BP = (KT/q).ln (Nd/ni) is
needed to be included in flatband voltage equation. The
modified flatband voltage becomes;
Vfb = - BP - B = - (KT/q).ln (Na.Nd/ni2)..............(3)
B. Polysilicon gate depletion effect:
As the polysilicon doping is reduced, the gate gets depleted
near the polysilicon-oxide interface and a part of the gate
voltage drops across the depletion region of polysilicon
[Fig-1].

This changes the effective gate voltage that controls the

charge in the channel region at the oxide-substrate interface.
The applied gate voltage is denoted as Vg; the band bending at
the polysilicon-oxide interface and silicon substrate-oxide
interfaces are respectively denoted as p and s. It is to be
noted that, while s is a positive quantity, p is a negative
quantity. Using Poissons equation in one dimension and
Considering the complete depletion approximation, the
polysilicon depletion charge is;
Qp = (2qsiNd p ) (4)
where, si is Silicon permittivity which equals to 1.04x10-12
F/cm.
Now, the total channel charge Qs (depletion and inversion)
should be equal to the depletion charge Qp in polysilicon.
Therefore, using Qs in place Qp in (4); the band bending at the
polysilicon-oxide interface become;
p = Qs /2qsiNd (5)
The channel charge Qs is found by solving one dimensional
Poissons equation where the total charge density includes
both mobile carriers and immobile depletion charges due to
the uncovered ions [1,2]. It is further assumed that a very
small drain voltage is applied at the drain terminal of the
MOSFET that does not influence the channel charge from its
value at zero drain voltage. Therefore, channel charge is given
by
Qs = -[(2siNaKT){(exp(-qs/KT)+qs/KT -1)+
ni2/Na2 (exp(qs/KT) - qs/KT -1)}].(6)
The voltage balance equation becomes,
Vg = Vfb + p + s - Qs/Cox . (7)
For low drain bias, the drain current is;
Id = -eff.(W/L).Qi(Vg).Vds. . (8)
In case of both depletion and inversion, only two terms of (6)
are significant and the total charge can be approximated as,
2

Qs=[(2siKTNa)(qs/KT+ni2/Na2.(exp(qs/KT)}]......... (9)
The depletion charge is
Qd = [2si qNa s] (10)
From (10), maximum value of depletion charge Qd is
found by putting s =2B.
The inversion charge is
Qi = Qs - Qd .. (11)
From (3),(5),(7),(8),(9),(10) and (11) the drain current can be
calculated numerically for different values of gate voltages.
However, to avoid complex numerical solutions, one can start
from s = 0 V and go on calculating Qs and p . By putting
these values in (7); the corresponding values of gate voltages
can be found. The corresponding drain currents can be
calculated by the same way using (8) and (11).
III. NUMERICAL MODELING
Drift Diffusion model:

Figure .1 Band bending at Polysilicon-Oxide and Substrate-Oxide

Interfaces

The popular drift-diffusion current equations can be easily

derived from the Boltzmann transport equation by considering
moments of the BTE. Consider steady state conditions and, for

simplicity, a 1-D geometry. With the use of a relaxation time

approximation, the Boltzmann transport equation may be
shown as:

Parabolic bands have been assumed for simplicity, and the

charge e has to be taken with the proper sign of the particle
(positive for holes and negative for electrons). The general
definition of current density is repeated here for completeness.

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS

Comparisons between the simulated and analytically
calculated results are shown in the following figures. Constant
electron mobility is considered to be 1000 cm2/V.s. The
following figures (figure 2 to 6) show the variations of drain
current with respect to Gate voltage for polysilicon doping
concentrations ranging from 1x1020/cm3 to 1x1018/cm3

where the integral on the right hand side represents the first
moment of the distribution function.

The equilibrium distribution function is symmetric in v, and

hence the first integral is zero. Therefore, we have
Drain current Vs gate Voltage plot with polysilicon doping
1e20
From the above equation replace

Where <v2> is average of the square of the velocity by

replacing it with (kBT/m) and introducing mobility and
diffusion coefficient we get the drift diffusion current
expressions.

Drain current Vs gate Voltage plot with polysilicon doping

1e19

Hydrodynamic model:
The hydrodynamic model treats the propagation of electrons and/or
holes in a semiconductor device as the flow of a charged
compressible fluid. The model exhibits hot carrier effects missing in
the standard drift-diffusion model. The hydrodynamic description
should be valid for devices with active regions greater than 0.05
microns. The hydrodynamic model is equivalent to the equations of
electro-gas dynamics. The electron gas has a sound speed and the
electron flow may be either subsonic or supersonic. In general, a
shock wave develops at the transition from supersonic flow to
subsonic flow. The hydrodynamic model has been extensively used
to study the n+/n/n+ diode that model the channel of a field effect
transistor. The diode begins with a heavily doped n+ source region,
followed by a lightly doped n channel region, and ends with an n+
drain region.

Drain current Vs gate Voltage plot with polysilicon doping

1e21

For doping 1e21

Drain current Vs gate Voltage plot with polysilicon doping

1e22
.
Using Drift Diffusion model and Hydro dynamic model:
For channel length 100nm and polysilicon doping 1E19

Overlay of VTC characteristics of MOSFET for different

polysilicon doping.
Plot analytical and practical values:
For doping 1e19:
For cahnnel length 120nm and polysilicon doping 1E19

For doping 1e20

For channel length 180nm and Polysilicon Doping 1E19

Conclusion:
From the above plots we can see that for different polysilicon
doping concentration for high gate voltage the analytical
curves differ from the simulated curves; and it is more
prominent for the curves having low polysilicon doping
concentrations. From the plot it is also seen that the threshold
voltage decrease with increase with increase in the doping
which increases the sub-threshold leakage current. The current
curve is different for low concentration because of
approximations. For the polysilicon Doping concentration of
1E19 the characteristics for different channel lengths are
plotted to find when to use drift diffusion and when to use
hydro dynamic model it is seen that for shorter channel
lengths hydrodynamic model is used and for long channel
length drift diffusion model is used.
REFERENCES
[1] Yuan Taur and Tak H. Ning, Fundamentals of Modern VLSI
Devices. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1998, Ch. 2, pp.
58 -82.
[2] Effect of polysilicon depletion on MOSFET I-V characteristics
C.-L. Huang, N. D. Arora, A. I. Nasr and D. A. Bell
ELECTRONICS LETTERS 24th June 1993 Vol. 29 No. 13
[3] Gate Length Dependent Polysilicon Depletion Effects-ChangHoon Choi, P. R. Chidambaram, Rajesh Khamankar, Charles F.
Machala, Zhiping Yu and Robert W. Dutton, IEEEELECTRON
DEVICE LETTERS, Vol. 23, No. 4, April 2002
[4] Semiconductor device simulation by Carl.Gardner

[5]
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[7]
[8]

www.silvaco.com.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polysilicon_depletion_effect
Atlas Manula version 2014.
http://nanohub.org/resources/