HOT-CARRIER RELIABILITY IN n-MOSFETs USED AS PASS-TRANSISTORS
Abstract
AC stressing is investigated to determine the hot-carrier reliability in a 0.5 μm CMOS technology and is interpreted by a quasi-static model based on distinct damage mechanisms. The hot-carrier dependence of n-MOSFETs operating in pass-transistor configurations is carefully studied as a function of the propagation time and geometry. It is shown that device degradation may exhibit in some cases a strong dependence on the propagation time and clearly differs from the simple case of inverter operation.