New methodologies of NBTI characterization eliminating recovery effects

Abstract

This work gives new insights of negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) characterization methodologies in advanced CMOS technology. NBTI is well-known to seriously limit the circuit performances in p-channel MOSFETs, in relation to both interface trap generation and hole trapping in the gate oxide. Hole detrapping from oxide traps during electrical parameter extractions, also called a recovery phenomenon, is unanimously acknowledged to be the most critical phenomenon avoiding a proper characterization of the effective damage. We point out here new NBTI evaluation techniques using pulsed voltages on the gate and on the drain to characterize NBT degradation and quantify recovery effects in the usual methodology.