Hot carrier Hall devices in CMOS technology

The sensitivity of Hall devices for a given bias current is often limited by short circuiting effects due to the finite length of the structure. The reduction of the sensitivity is especially important in small devices where contacts occupy a large part of the active zone. In the present work, we present a novel method to enhance the current-related sensitivity. This is done by increasing the current till saturation which leads to the enhancement of the input impedance and thus to the limitation of short circuit. In sufficiently small devices the carrier velocity saturation is the main cause of the resistance increase. Other contributions to the sensitivity increase such as junction field effect and heating have been taken into account. With the help of computer simulations, we have separated the different contributions. The velocity saturation effect leads up to 40% increase in sensitivity near the breakdown voltage as compared to the low electric field Hall voltage. Although the sensitivity increases the overall performance has degraded when operating in the hot carrier regime.