Considerations for evaluating hot-electron reliability of strained Si n-channel MOSFETs

Tensile-strained Si on relaxed Si1−xGex buffers has emerged as an important channel material for improving CMOS performance. The ability of tensile-strained Si to dramatically improve MOSFET drive currents has received much attention in the literature in recent years, but little is known about its reliability characteristics. In this review we discuss some of the issues that should be considered in the analysis of hot-electron reliability of strained Si n-channel MOSFETs.