DC and RF Degradation Induced by High RF Power Stresses in 0.18- $\mu\hbox{m}$ nMOSFETs

Liu, Chien-Hsuan; Wang, Ruey-Lue; Su, Yan–Kuin; Tu, Chih-Ho; Juang, Ying‐Zong

doi:10.1109/tdmr.2010.2048032

Cited by 17 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 25 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Also the amount of degradation produced by changing VDD or PIN is similar. These observations denote similar relevance of the DC and RF components in the aging degradation, in agreement with some previous simulation [24] and experimental [13] works.…”

Section: A Nmos and Pmos Degradation With DC And Rf Stresssupporting

confidence: 92%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Aging in CMOS RF Linear Power Amplifiers: An Experimental Study

Aragones

Barajas

Crespo-Yepes

et al. 2021

IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Techn.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

An extensive experimental analysis of the HCI and BTI aging effects on RF linear power amplifiers (PA) is presented in this paper. Two different 2.45 GHz PA topologies have been implemented in a CMOS 65 nm technology, one based on a classical common-source (CS) and choke inductor, another one based on a complementary current-reuse (CR) circuit, both of them producing similar gain and output 1-dB compression point (P-1dB). These circuits have been stressed to produce accelerated aging degradation, by applying increasing supply (VDD) voltages, or increasing RF input powers (PIN). The degradation on the transistor parameters (threshold voltage and mobility), DC bias point (IDC current) and RF performance (gain, matching, compression point) have been simultaneously measured. This has allowed to observe how the reduced transistor degradation in CR PA results in a higher robustness in its RF parameters, compared to CS PA circuit. The equivalent RMS voltages have been proposed as an observable metric to assess the combined DC+RF stress in a PA circuit. This has been applied to a semi-analytical model, thus providing comprehension of the link between the conditions under which a circuit is operated, the degradation of the transistor parameters, and the effects on the DC current and RF performance.

show abstract

Section: A Nmos and Pmos Degradation With DC And Rf Stresssupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Previous works have evaluated experimentally the aging degradation of RF PA circuits, but some in the context of switched operation (class-E) [11], [12], and only a few analyzed linear PAs (class A or AB) [13], [14], [15]. In these works, aging is observed as a function of time but only in one or a few stress situations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aging in CMOS RF Linear Power Amplifiers: An Experimental Study

Aragones

Barajas

Crespo-Yepes

et al. 2021

IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Techn.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In our stress experiments, however, no noticeable increase in gate leakage current was detected when V DD2 was stressed at 3.5, 4, and 4.5 V. This suggests that no transistor oxide hard breakdown occurred since hard breakdown typically results in a sudden surge of gate current [18], [19] and could collapse RF performances. In addition, the ADS circuit simulation indicates that the peak drain-gate voltage of the cascode transistor with the oxide thickness of 4.08 nm results in a smaller electric field than the critical field for oxide breakdown [20]. The oxide under this high RF and elevated dc stresses at V DD2 = 4.5 V may experience some kind of soft breakdown [20], which deteriorates the PA circuit performances further.…”

Section: Physical Insight Through the Mixed-mode Device And Circumentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, the ADS circuit simulation indicates that the peak drain-gate voltage of the cascode transistor with the oxide thickness of 4.08 nm results in a smaller electric field than the critical field for oxide breakdown [20]. The oxide under this high RF and elevated dc stresses at V DD2 = 4.5 V may experience some kind of soft breakdown [20], which deteriorates the PA circuit performances further. Soft breakdown increases the gate leakage current noise due to formulation of random defects and conducting path within the oxide [21].…”

Section: Physical Insight Through the Mixed-mode Device And Circumentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Verification of RF Stress Effect on Cascode Class-E PA Performance and Reliability

Yuan

Yen

Chen

et al. 2012

IEEE Trans. Device Mater. Relib.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract-A cascode class-E power amplifier (PA) operating at 5.2 GHz has been designed using Advanced Design System simulation. RF circuit performances such as output power and power-added efficiency before and after RF stress have been experimentally investigated. The measured output power, power-added efficiency, and linearity after high-input-power RF stress at elevated supply voltage show significant circuit degradations. The impact of hot-carrier injection and gate oxide soft breakdown on cascode class-E PA reliability is discussed.Index Terms-Cascode class E, gate oxide breakdown, output power, power amplifier (PA), power efficiency, reliability.

show abstract

“…Furthermore, many works have applied RF stress to the drain by using a load-pull setup to perform on-wafer RF stress measurements [18,19,20], but RF stress applied to the gate is only marginally mentioned in the literature. Even though some studies the RF stress applied on the gate through the use of load-pull, the degradation of the devices was only focused on liner drain current and S parameters [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of RF stress on the low-frequency noise in nMOSFETs

Niu

Yang

et al. 2021

IEICE Electron. Express

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this paper, the degradation of low-frequency (LF) noise under different RF stress conditions in nMOSFETs has been reported and compared with the conventional DC stress condition. LF noise increases after RF stress and the increment of noise under RF stress at a large V gs value is bigger than that caused by DC stress. The change in LF noise intensity under RF stress raised more rapidly at large V gs values than that at small V gs values, which are contradictory to LF noise performance after DC stress. The influence of the input power and frequency of stress on LF noise has also been investigated separately. As the stress input power or frequency increases, the increment of noise intensity rises as well. The γ decreases as the growth of the stress input power or frequency, and the values of γ are below 1 after 18 GHz RF stress. The results provide experimental verification that the interface traps generated by RF stress play a major role in the degradation of LF noise.

show abstract

DC and RF Degradation Induced by High RF Power Stresses in 0.18- $\mu\hbox{m}$ nMOSFETs

Cited by 17 publications

References 25 publications

Aging in CMOS RF Linear Power Amplifiers: An Experimental Study

Aging in CMOS RF Linear Power Amplifiers: An Experimental Study

Experimental Verification of RF Stress Effect on Cascode Class-E PA Performance and Reliability

Impact of RF stress on the low-frequency noise in nMOSFETs

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About