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We analyze the carrier dynamics in MOSFETs under low voltage operation for a 90nm CMOS technology. For this purpose the displacement (charging/discharging) current, induced during switching operations is studied experimentally and theoretically. It is found that the experimental transient characteristics can only be well reproduced in the circuit simulation of low voltage applications by considering the carrier-transit delay in the compact MOSFET model. The switching frequency is found to decrease with reduced voltage due to diminished inversion condition and thus driving capability, which can be modeled with increased transit delay.

Corona and breakdown characteristics for a configuration of a sphere with a needle and a plane in N gas are studied. The protrusion was used to simulate a 2 metallic particle attached to a high voltage conductor surface in power apparatus. The corona and breakdown characteristics depend on the vertical distance between the needle tip and the bottom sphere. It was observed that the breakdown path changed from needle-to-plane to sphere-to-plane while increasing the vertical distance of the needle from the plane. Although corona was generated at the needle-tip at first and developed in the direction of the plane, both the needle-plane and the sphere-plane breakdown occurred at some short vertical distances. The sphereplane breakdown in that distance was triggered by corona from the needle.

We have developed test structures to experimentally extract the substrate-noise coupling characteristics between MOSFETs. It was found that the noise propagation from the aggressor to the victim can be described on the basis of the small-signal properties observed at the substrate node of the aggressor. Based on the finding an equivalent circuit was developed to predict the propagated noise intensity induced during circuit operation. The resulting prediction was verified to be in good agreement with the measured results.

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