Impact of hot carrier degradation on MOSFET small-signal input, output, and transmission features

An analysis of the level of hot carrier (HC) degradation caused in sub-100 nm n-type MOSFETs operated from DC up to 20 GHz, is introduced. The analysis comes accompanied with experimental results. The degradation process is done through the application of controlled DC currents at well defines periods of time. The recorded S-parameters before and after DC degradation allows the observation of the corresponding changes in the transmission and reflection features, as well as in the intrinsic channel resistance and the transconductance. This analysis is relevant for power CMOS amplifiers operating in the RF frequency regime.