High field hole velocity and velocity overshoot in silicon inversion layers

We report measurements of the drift velocity of holes in silicon inversion layers. The saturation velocity of holes at 300 K is found to be strongly dependent on the effective vertical field. No hole velocity overshoot was observed down to 0.16-μm channel length at room temperature. At 77 K, hole velocity saturation is much less pronounced, and a 10% higher average velocity is observed for 0.16- μm channel length as compared to 0.36-μm channel length.