Definition of hot carriers

1. those carriers, which may be either electrons or holes, that have been accelerated by the large traverse electric field between the source and the drain regions of a metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET). They can jeopardize the reliability of a semiconductor device when these carriers are scattered (that is, deflected) by phonons, ionized donors or acceptors, or other carriers. The scattering phenomenon can manifest itself as substrate current, gate current, or trapped charges . [SEMATECH]