Behavior of NBTI under AC dynamic circuit conditions

The NBTI mechanism was investigated for a 5 nm gate oxide technology under AC dynamic circuit conditions in the frequency range of 2 MHz to 20 MHz and device "ON" duty factor in the range of 30% to 70%. The increase in the magnitude of threshold voltage, and the decrease in device current under AC operation are generally lower than that of DC operation by 3/spl times/ or higher. The time power function dependency of the degradation at sufficient stress times is lower than that of DC operation. These results indicate that more emphasis needs to be placed on AC behavior of NBTI for scaled CMOS technologies.