Degradation mechanism understanding of NLDEMOS SOI in RF applications

D. Lachenal (1, 2) , Alain Bravaix (3, 1) , F. Monsieur (2) , Y. Rey-Tauriac (2)

1 IM2NP - Institut des Matériaux, de Microélectronique et des Nanosciences de Provence
2 ST-CROLLES - STMicroelectronics [Crolles]
3 Yncréa Méditerrané

The distinct channel hot-carrier (CHC) degradation mechanisms have been observed in NLDEMOS processed from a SOI CMOS technology. The charge-pumping (CP) technique has evidenced the larger hot-hole efficiency in the damage mechanisms at maximum substrate current condition where a net hole trapping is observed in the overlap region which is further screened by the large increase of interface traps in this region. As a consequence, the device suffers from a mobility reduction due to the series-resistance increase mostly in linear mode which impacts the device speed response to AC signal. Off state stressing exhibits a very similar CHC degradation behavior due to the interface traps which may represents a limitative case for the pulses shape optimisation encountered in Class-E operation. A modified reaction-diffusion modelling is proposed based on the multi-vibrational hydrogen release mechanism which matches the time dependence and saturation effect. Finally, we show that the efficiency of E-Class power amplifier is weakly affected by the series-resistance degradation.

Mots clés: Channel Hot-Carriers (CHC); NLDEMOS; CP; AC; RF signal

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

D. Lachenal, Alain Bravaix, F. Monsieur, Y. Rey-Tauriac. Degradation mechanism understanding of NLDEMOS SOI in RF applications. Microelectronics Reliability, 2007, 47 (9-11), pp.1634-1638. ⟨10.1016/j.microrel.2007.07.024⟩. ⟨hal-03661024⟩