Temperature dependence of surface recombination current in MOS transistors

Analytical expressions are derived for the temperature dependence of the peak current amplitude, peak gate voltage, and current-voltage linewidth of the basewell terminal current in metal-oxide-silicon transistors (MOSTs) due to electron-hole recombination at the interface traps. They are verified by experimental data. It is shown that temperature dependence of the basewell terminal current cannot distinguish a discrete energy level from a distribution of energy levels of the interface traps in the silicon energy gap, because the interface traps measured by surface recombination current are those traps with energy close to midgap. A demonstration is given for the accurate determination of the local temperature inside the transistor using the ideal exponential dependence of the collector current on the emitter-base forward-bias voltage.