TY - JOUR
T1 - Impact of MOSFET gate oxide breakdown on digital circuit operation and reliability
AU - Kaczer, Ben
AU - Degraeve, Robin
AU - Rasras, Mahmoud
AU - Van De Mieroop, Koen
AU - Roussel, Philippe J.
AU - Groeseneken, Guido
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received September 4, 2001; revised November 21, 2001. This work was supported in part by the European Union under the IST HUNT Project (IST-1999-11599). The review of this paper was arranged by Editor M. J. Deen. The authors are with the IMEC, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium (e-mail: [email protected]). Publisher Item Identifier S 0018-9383(02)02120-2.
PY - 2002/3
Y1 - 2002/3
N2 - The influence of FET gate oxide breakdown on the performance of a ring oscillator circuit is studied using statistical tools, emission microscopy, and circuit analysis. It is demonstrated that many hard breakdowns can occur in this circuit without affecting its overall function. Time-to-breakdown data measured on individual FETs are shown to scale correctly to circuit level. SPICE simulations of the ring oscillator with the affected FET represented by an equivalent circuit confirm the measured influence of the breakdown on the circuit's frequency, the stand-by and the operating currents. It is concluded that if maintaining a digital circuit's logical functionality is the sufficient reliability criterion, a nonzero probability exists that the circuit will remain functional beyond the first gate oxide breakdown. Consequently, relaxation of the present reliability criterion in certain cases might be possible.
AB - The influence of FET gate oxide breakdown on the performance of a ring oscillator circuit is studied using statistical tools, emission microscopy, and circuit analysis. It is demonstrated that many hard breakdowns can occur in this circuit without affecting its overall function. Time-to-breakdown data measured on individual FETs are shown to scale correctly to circuit level. SPICE simulations of the ring oscillator with the affected FET represented by an equivalent circuit confirm the measured influence of the breakdown on the circuit's frequency, the stand-by and the operating currents. It is concluded that if maintaining a digital circuit's logical functionality is the sufficient reliability criterion, a nonzero probability exists that the circuit will remain functional beyond the first gate oxide breakdown. Consequently, relaxation of the present reliability criterion in certain cases might be possible.
KW - CMOS digital integrated circuits
KW - CMOSFET oscillators
KW - Circuit reliability
KW - Dielectric breakdown
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U2 - 10.1109/16.987122
DO - 10.1109/16.987122
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0036494245
SN - 0018-9383
VL - 49
SP - 500
EP - 506
JO - IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices
JF - IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices
IS - 3
ER -