An investigation of anomalous current-voltage characteristics in silicon-on-insulator metal-oxide-semiconductor transistors

Floating-body effects such as hysteresis, a single-transistor latch, and steep subthreshold slopes in n-channel silicon-on-insulator metal-oxide-semiconductor transistors are investigated. It is shown that the existence of multistable floating-body potentials is responsible for hysteresis and a single-transistor latch. Hysteresis denotes the presence of three floating-body potentials, while a single-transistor latch could reveal as many as five. Furthermore, a sharp rise (fall) in floating-body potentials, which triggers an abrupt device transition from subthreshold (saturation) to saturation (subthreshold), produces the steep subthreshold ID-VG characteristics observed at high drain biases.