Bulk Carrier Contaminations and Their Effects on MOSFETs Under Energy Harvesting Systems

Energy harvesters, such as photovoltaic cells, generate carriers in the deep substrate regions; these carriers can affect MOSFETs and deteriorate their performance or even cause malfunctioning. In this study, we discussed the effects of bulk carrier contamination on integrated MOSFETs in the context of energy-harvesting devices. We confirmed that the close integration of MOSFET circuits in a photovoltaic cell causes malfunctioning under strong light illumination. Moreover, numerical simulations revealed that PMOS is highly sensitive to carrier contamination as a forward pn-junction from the bulk-side storage carriers into the NWell region. Furthermore, increasing the distance from the illumination window was not an effective countermeasure, and alternative methods, such as the silicon-on-insulator substrate, n−-substrate, or NMOS logic, should be implemented for such large-scale integration.