Modeling failure modes for submicron devices

As CMOS technology scales down to the regime where atomic size becomes significant, it has become increasingly important to take a physics-of-failure approach to device design by understanding the underlying mechanisms of MOSFET degradation. We give a model which describes the time dependence of degradation of a general class of failure modes, applying the model specifically to hot-electron interface-state generation. With several typical measurements of device degradation characteristics, this model can be used to derive the failure function and extract the Weibull parameter for failure modes in this class.