Worst Case Stress Conditions for Hot Carrier Degradation with Technology Nodes from 0.35µm to 45nm

Abstract

The worst case stress conditions for hot carrier degradation have been investigated in detail at the devices fabricated with CMOS technologies from 0.35µm to 45nm. In nMOSFETs with long channel devices (L>0.18µm), Vg at Ibmax and the lowest temperature is the worst case condition; For short channel devices (0.13 µm ≤ L ≤ 0.18μm), Vg @ Ibmax and Vg=Vd stress conditions result in comparable hot carrier damage; For the very short channel transistors (L<0.13µm), the worst case stress condition has been found to be Vg=Vd instead of Vg@Ibmax. In this case, the higher temperature will induce worse hot carrier degradation. In pMOSFETs, the stress conditions Vg@Igmax is the worst case condition for the long channel devices (L≥0.35µm). As the channel length scaled to sub-0.25µm, the worst case stress condition shifts from Vg@Igmax to VG = VD.