A Review on Hot-Carrier-Induced Degradation of Lateral DMOS Transistor

With the scaling of process node and increase of operation voltage, the electrical fields and impact ionization generation rates in lateral double-diffused MOS (LDMOS) transistors are obviously increased. As a result, a detailed characterization and understanding for long-term hot-carrier-induced (HCI) effect of LDMOS have been becoming more and more important. This review compares and summarizes the HCI damage locations and degradation mechanisms for all kinds of typical LDMOS devices under different stress conditions. Finally, generalized conclusions on HCI effect of LDMOS are deduced, and some special degradation influence factors brought by the device design technologies are also clarified.