Voltage-Dependent Activation Energy Maps for Analytic Lifetime Modeling of NBTI Without Time Extrapolation

Abstract

To enable MOSFETs lifetime extrapolation of up to 10 years, bias temperature instability (BTI) is commonly accelerated via increased stress voltage and increased temperature. We demonstrate that BTI can be described by a unique activation energy map including the voltage and temperature dependence of stress and recovery and use capture and emission time maps to model the time dynamics responsible for the threshold voltage shift of BTI. Based on this approach, we present a new measurement technique, further called temperature-accelerated measure-stress-measurements (TA-MSM) enabling lifetime modeling of BTI without any time extrapolation. We show the application of this technique to simulate standard qualification measurements, fast wafer-level reliability measurements as well as the degradation after ac and dc burn-in stress. In addition, we show that the TA-MSM technique is a valuable tool for the study of the permanent component and the recently discovered reverse recovery effect.