Current crowding in faulty MOSFET: Optical and electrical investigation

In this paper we report an in-depth analysis of a current crowding phenomenon in a 0.55um CMOS technology. Emission Microscopy (EMMI) technique was used to support the traditional electrical investigation for the interpretation of physical phenomena inside a MOS transistor. We identified a localized increase of the luminescence emission due to a local current crowding of the device under test. We ascribed the origins to a local higher electric field leading to an enhanced hot-carrier regime within the device. We carried out a detailed characterization by means of the joint use of photon emission analysis and electrical measurements. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.