Performance and hot-carrier reliability of deep-submicrometer CMOS

Abstract

Results of a comprehensive study of the performance and hot-carrier reliability of CMOS devices with channel length ranging from submicrometer to deep-submicrometer are presented. It is found that the advantage of n-MOSFETs over p-MOSFETs in driving capability diminishes with scaled device dimensions. The saturation transconductance of deep-submicron MOSFETs degrades even at moderate gate bias because of the high field effect. When using V/sub CC//I/sub DSAT/ as the measure for gate delay, the degradation in gate delay caused by lowering the power supply voltage is found to be less significant as device dimension is scaled down to 0.1 mu m. The hot-carrier generation and hot-carrier-induced device degradation of deep-submicron CMOS are extensively investigated.