A New Direct Measurement Method of Time Dependent Dielectric Breakdown at High Frequency

• Published in: IEEE electron device letters Vol. 41; no. 10; pp. 1460 - 1463
• Main Authors: Arabi, Melissa, Garros, Xavier, Cluzel, Jacques, Rafik, Mustapha, Federspiel, Xavier, Ghibaudo, Gerard
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-10-2020; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE); Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: CMOS reliability; Converters; Dielectric breakdown; Dielectric measurement; Electric breakdown; Engineering Sciences; Frequency measurement; High frequencies; high frequency; Legal issues; Logic gates; Micro and nanotechnologies; Microelectronics; oxide breakdown; Pulse generators; RF setup; Stress; TDDB; Time dependence; Transistors
• ISSN: 0741-3106; 1558-0563
• DOI: 10.1109/LED.2020.3016383

A novel technique is presented for a direct evaluation of oxide breakdown under AC stress at high frequencies up to 500MHz. It relies on a RF setup, which combines a high speed pulse generator, transition converters and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">50\Omega </tex-math></inline-formula> termination probes, to deliver to the device a digital AC signal without overshoot and distortion. The method leads to similar results than a complex on-chip solution while offering more simplicity and flexibility. Time Dependent Dielectric Breakdown (TDDB) in 28nm Fully Depleted Silicon On Insulator (FDSOI) transistors is then characterized under DC and AC stress at various frequencies. It follows a power law with frequency TDDB<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\alpha \text{F}^{\mathbf {a}} </tex-math></inline-formula> with a ≈0.3, allowing an extended lifetime to circuits operating at GHz frequency.