ON THE ABOVE SUPPLY VOLTAGE HOT-CARRIER DISTRIBUTION IN SEMICONDUCTOR-DEVICES

In this letter we show that contrary to recent suggestions the hot carrier distribution at energies greater than the maximum available from the electric fields within a device does not take the form exp(-ε/kTL), where TL is the lattice temperature. The effective temperature is shown to be typically 1.35TL close to the supply energy, only approaching TL at energies well above that available from the electric field. Our results are obtained by solving the one-dimensional Boltzmann transport equation using a novel hybrid Monte Carlo/iterative technique. © 1995 American Institute of Physics.