DG: Product NBTI

Gate dielectric scaling has played a pivotal role in enabling conventional CMOS to be offered with high performance, low power and higher levels of integration within and across technology generations, without significantly altering process cost or complexity. As a consequence of this gate dielectric scaling, NBTI which increases device V_t has become a dominant mechanism degrading product max operating frequency (F_max) and min operating voltage (V_min). At this year’s product NBTI discussion group we will address:

Ø Is DC NBTI relevant for product reliability or just AC NBTI?

Ø What is the best way to characterize and measure AC NBTI?

Ø What is the AC NBTI dependence on time and AC duty?

Ø What fraction of AC NBTI is permanent and what fraction is recoverable?

Ø What role does NBTI play in SRAM stability and Vmin? How does it fit in with extrinsic and intrinsic TDDB that also affects SRAM stability?

Ø What role does NBTI play in product Fmax degradation? Does it dominate HCI?

Ø What is the role of NBTI in product burn-in (that weed out extrinsics) and high-temperature-operating-lifetests (that establish product guardbands)?

Amr Haggag