Abstract
This chapter reviews different reliability aspects of silicon technologies operating at cryogenic temperatures. Reliability is one of the main issues in semiconductor devices, especially in very large scale integrated (VLSI) systems in which the operating lifetime can be drastically reduced. Reliability is strongly linked to degradation mechanisms such as hot-carrier (HC) generation; and HCs are related to high-field transport phenomena, such as impact ionization and breakdown. Impact ionization is a function of the operating temperature because it increases as the temperature is reduced. However, impact ionization for holes and electrons has different temperature dependencies. At room temperature the impact ionization rates for electrons and holes are up to two orders of magnitude different. Downscaling Si technologies and low-temperature operation generally increase HC degradation effects and the combination of both is expected to pose serious reliability problems. Therefore, the chapter explores several techniques of hardening the interface of Silicon devices. The chapter outlines avalanche and breakdown effects in silicon Resistors, bipolar devices, and metal-oxide–semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET).
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