Open AccessImpact of Hot Carrier Aging on Random Telegraph Noise and Within a Device Fluctuation
Author(s) -
Azrif B. Manut,
Jian Fu Zhang,
Meng Duan,
Zhigang Ji,
Wei Dong Zhang,
Ben Kaczer,
Tom Schram,
Naoto Horiguchi,
Guido Groeseneken
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
ieee journal of the electron devices society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.69
H-Index - 31
ISSN - 2168-6734
DOI - 10.1109/jeds.2015.2502760
Subject(s) - components, circuits, devices and systems , engineered materials, dielectrics and plasmas
For nanometer MOSFETs, charging and discharging a single trap induces random telegraph noise (RTN). When there are more than a few traps, RTN signal becomes complex and appears as within a device fluctuation (WDF). RTN/WDF causes jitters in switch timing and is a major challenge to low power circuits. In addition to RTN/WDF, devices also age. The interaction between RTN/WDF and aging is of importance and not fully understood. Some researchers reported aging increasing RTN/WDF, while others showed RTN/WDF being hardly affected by aging. The objective of this paper is to investigate the impact of hot carrier aging (HCA) on the RTN/WDF of nMOSFETs. For devices of average RTN/WDF, it is found that the effect of HCA is generally modest. For devices of abnormally high RTN/WDF, however, for the first time, we report HCA reducing RTN/WDF substantially (>50%). This reduction originates from either a change of current distribution or defect losses.