Physical-based RTN modeling of ring oscillators in 40-nm SiON and 28-nm HKMG by bimodal defect-centric behaviors

Abstract

We apply the bimodal trap model of Random Telegraph Noise (RTN) to predict its impact on the circuit level instead of the conventional unimodal trap model. Two different trap distributions represented by the average number of traps N and the average impact to threshold voltage Vth per trap η in gate dielectric make measured RTN distributions of ring oscillators (ROs) to follow the bimodal trap model. It replicates distributions of frequency fluctuation of ROs caused by RTN on 40-nm SION and 28-nm HKMG processes. RO with standard size-transistors can be modeled by scaled parameters from RO with minimum-size transistors.