SiGe Channel Technology: Superior Reliability Toward Ultrathin EOT Devices—Part I: NBTI

We report extensive experimental results of the negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) reliability of SiGe channel pMOSFETs as a function of the main gate-stack parameters. The results clearly show that this high-mobility channel technology offers significantly improved NBTI robustness compared with Si-channel devices, which can solve the reliability issue for sub-1-nm equivalent-oxide-thickness devices. A physical model is proposed to explain the intrinsically superior NBTI robustness.