A new degradation model and lifetime extrapolation technique for lightly doped drain nMOSFETs under hot-carrier degradation

The hot-carrier degradation of lightly doped drain nMOSFETs is studied in detail. The degradation proceeds in a two-stage mechanism, involving first a series resistance increase and saturation, followed by a carrier mobility reduction. The degradation behaviour of a characteristic MOSFET parameter is modelled over the complete degradation range, from 0.02 up to more than 10%. Furthermore, the introduction of a simultaneous non-linear least-square fit of the degradation curves has been successful for predicting the complete degradation behaviour, at normal operating conditions. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.