IIRW 2005 discussion group summary: negative bias temperature instability

The negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) is a pMOSFET reliability problem that is most often observed as a shift in threshold voltage (V) in devices subject to moderate negative gate biases at moderately elevated temperatures. Despite the first observations of NBTI more than 30 years ago, it has not been become a major concern until the past few years. The aggravation of NBTI is due to a scaling-induced increase in effective oxide field as well as the addition of nitrogen in the gate dielectric. Many models have been proposed to predict the NBTI phenomenon, but a complete understanding of the NBTI phenomenon has proved elusive