Digital Detection of Oxide Breakdown and Life-Time Extension in Submicron CMOS Technology

📋 论文概要

该论文提出了一种数字检测氧化物击穿的方法，并实现了亚微米CMOS技术中晶体管的寿命延长。解决了高压模拟电路因可靠性问题导致的寿命缩短和效率降低的问题。

💡 主要创新点

• 提出了一种数字检测氧化物退化的技术，能够实时监控晶体管的老化状态。
• 通过检测到的退化信息动态调整工作条件，从而延长高压模拟电路的寿命。

🏷 关键词

📄 原文摘要

In modern CMOS technologies reliability issues limit the maximum operating voltage of transistors. This prevents the integration of efficient power amplifiers (e.g., audio or RF) since stacked devices are needed to prevent breakdown, which reduces efficiency. Transistor reliability is strongly related to operating voltages; higher voltages result in faster degradation and hence in lower reliability and shorter life time. Degradation can be monitored by oxide degradation, threshold voltage-shifts and mobility reduction. An approach is introduced to extend the lifetime of high-voltage analog circuits in CMOS technologies based on redundancy, like that known for DRAMS. A large power transistor is segmented into N smaller ones in parallel. If a sub-transistor is broken, it is removed automatically from the compound transistor. The principle is demonstrated in an RF CMOS Power Amplifier (PA) in standard 1.2V 90nm CMOS.

👥 作者与机构

Mustafa Acar, Anne-Johan Annema, Bram Nauta

University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands