A study of RF oscillator reliability in nanoscale CMOS

In this paper, we investigate the nature of oxide breakdown and stress-related degradation mechanisms in MOS transistors. The MOS breakdown time is quantified based on exponential-law and defect-generation models versus the oxide-thickness, gate area, temperature and voltage stress at a given cumulative failure. As a consequence, a design guide is presented to estimate the time dependent dielectric breakdown of any analog circuit. Based on reliability analysis, the lifetime of the recently introduced class-F oscillator is evaluated for both thin and thick oxide options in TSMC 65-nm CMOS process.