Drain Induced Barrier

Lowering
Lecture 6.6

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Drain Induced Barrier Lowering

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If small channel length MOSFETs are not scaled
properly, and the source/drain junctions are too Drain-induced barrier lowering in MOSFETs
deep or the channel doping is too low:

 This causes unintended electrostatic

interactions between the source and the
drain known as Drain-Induced Barrier
Lowering (DIBL).

 This leads to punch-through leakage or

breakdown between the source and the
drain, and loss of gate control.

 For a short channel MOSFET, as the drain bias

is raised and the conduction band edge in the
drain is pulled down & with a concomitant
increase of the drain depletion width), the
source-channel potential barrier is lowered
due to DIBL.
Cross-sections and potential distribution along
 Once the source-channel barrier is lowered the channel for a long channel and short channel
by DIBL, there can be significant drain MOSFET
leakage current, with the gate being unable
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to shut it off.
Solution to overcome DIBL

• The source/drain junctions must be made sufficiently shallow (i.e., scaled properly)
as the channel lengths are reduced, to prevent DIBL.

• Secondly, the channel doping must be made sufficiently high to prevent the drain
from being able to control the source junction. This is achieved by performing what is
known as an anti-punchthrough implant in the channel.

• Sometimes, instead of such an implant throughout the channel (which can have
undesirable consequences such as raising the VT or the body effect), a localized
implant is done only near the source/drains.

These are known as halo or pocket implants. The higher doping reduces
the source/drain depletion widths and prevents their interaction.

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 Advanced methods to prevent punch-through using

(a) Delta doping (b) Halo Implants and (c) Pocket Implants

for a shield against punch-through without affecting the subthreshold swing.

Figure 2.5: Advanced methods to prevent punchthrough using (a) delta doping, (b) halo, and (c) pocket implants.

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 Subthreshold Conduction
* In small-geometry MOSFETs, the characteristics of current flow in the channel between
the source and the drain can be explained as being controlled by the 2-D electric field vector
E(x, y).

• 1-D gradual channel approximation (GCA) assumes that the electric field components
parallel to the surface and perpendicular to the surface are effectively decoupled.

• Subthreshold conduction in small-geometry MOS transistors arises due to the two-

dimensional nature of channel current flow.

• The potential barrier is controlled by both the gate-to-source voltage VGS and
the drain to-source voltage VDS.

• If the drain voltage is increased, the potential barrier in the channel decreases, leading to
drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL).

• The reduction of the potential barrier eventually allows electron flow between the source
and the drain, even if the gate-to-source voltage is lower than the threshold voltage.

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* The channel current that flows under these conditions (VGS < VTO) is called the
subthreshold current.

* Two-dimensional analysis of the small-geometry MOSFET yields the following

approximate expression for the subthreshold current.

Here,
xC  Subthreshold channel depth
Dn  Electron diffusion coefficient
LB  Length of the barrier region in the channel
r  Reference potential.

 Exponential dependence of the subthreshold current on both the gate and the drain
voltages.

* Identifying subthreshold conduction is very important for circuit applications

where small amounts of current flow may significantly disturb the circuit operation.

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 End

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