Self-Heating p-Channel Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors for Reliability Monitoring of Negative-Bias Temperature Instability

Abstract

In this paper, we have proposed a comprehensive solution to the reliability monitoring (RM) of negative-bias temperature instability (NBTI), including the self-heating test structure, stress condition determination, and specification calculation. A special test structure, i.e., a p-channel metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (pMOSFET) with an embedded polysilicon heater, can be self-heated rapidly by forcing appropriate voltages into the polysilicon heater. For the first time, we exploit the use of the turn-on channel resistance of pMOSFETs to carefully calibrate device temperature by adjusting ambient temperature. The correlation between pMOSFET and metal temperatures is determined for temperature control during NBTI RM. To minimize extra hot-hole generation at a higher stress voltage, carrier separation is used to determine the suitable stress condition. Finally, the NBTI model of lifetime projection is applied to the calculation of the allowable threshold voltage shift specification. The entire measurement of NBTI RM for each device is completed within 3–5 min and also provides a rapid assessment of advanced technologies.