Wafer-Level Characterization of Ring-Oscillators Frequency Degradation in FinFET Technology

In this paper, frequency degradation of ringoscillator (RO) is systematically investigated in advanced FinFET technology. To link the time evolutions of RO circuit degradation with the device parameter shift, a high-resolution wafer-level frequency characterization unit is introduced using the measure-stress-measure method. Both dynamic and static aging modes are compared in aspects of time exponent, accelerate factor and recovery behavior. The different contribution of hot carrier injection (HCI) and bias temperature instability (BTI) can explain the behavioral differences between the two aging modes. This work is helpful for establishing correlation between device and circuit degradation.