Hot carrier injection (HCI)

A failure mechanism in silicon based electronic devices. It describes the phenomenon by which carriers gain sufficient energy to be injected into the gate oxide. This occurs as carriers move along the channel in MOSFET and experience impact ionization near the drain end of the device. The damage can occur at the interface, within the oxide and/or within the sidewall spacer. Interface-state generation and charge trapping induced by this mechanism result in transistor parameter degradation, typically switching frequency degradation, rather than a “hard’ functional failure. (Reference JEP122F)