Novel voltage step stress (VSS) technique for fast lifetime prediction of hot carrier degradation

摘要

Hot carrier injection (HCI) is one of the critical de-vice degradation mechanisms, and is conventionally characterized with constant voltage stress (CVS) method. A novel voltage-step stress (VSS) methodology is pro-posed to quickly characterize HCI degradation, based on a simplified reaction-diffusion model. This wafer-level reliability qualification methodology for HCI requires only one single device, and the total test time can be con-trolled within 2 hours. Therefore, this new technique can be an effective tool for fast reliability screening for HCI during process development in the future.