Introducing Pulsing into Reliability Tests for Advanced CMOS Technologies

Introducing Pulsing into Reliability Tests for Advanced CMOS Technologies

AC, or pulsed, stress is a useful addition to the typical stress-measure tests for investigating both semiconductor charge trapping and degradation behaviors. NBTI (negative bias temperature instability) and TDDB (time dependent dielectric breakdown) tests consist of stress/measure cycles. The applied stress voltage is typically a DC signal, which is used because it maps more easily to device models. However, incorporating pulsed stress testing provides additional data that permits a better understanding of device performance in frequency-dependent circuits. This white paper discusses some charge pumping and AC stress techniques commonly used in reliability testing for advanced CMOS technologies. ■