Impact of non-Conducting RF and DC Hot Carrier Stresses on FinFET Reliability for RF Power Amplifiers

Impact of non-conducting RF and DC stresses on transistor I-V and RF characteristics are investigated experimentally on a production 14/16-nm FinFET technology for the first time, for high voltage devices commonly used in RF PAs. The degradation is shown to be non-quasi static (NQS), and does not permit the use of DC stress to predict device lifetime under RF stress. Further modeling shows that these FinFETs provide enough margins against non-conducting RF stress for intended PA application.