Circuit hot carrier reliability simulation in advanced CMOS process technology development

To establish the relation between circuit AC hot carrier (HC) degradation and DC testable parameters in early development stage of a deep submicron technology becomes the critical part of the process integration. DC Hot Carrier parameters, e.g. Idsat and Idlin, were found to be correlated to AC Ring Oscillator frequency degradation. The impact of crosstalk induced voltage overshoot to invertor hot carrier degradation was quantified by simulation. A set of designable parameters were used to ensure deep submicron technology hot carrier reliability.