RF performance degradation in nMOS transistors due to hot carrier effects

Abstract

This paper reports the hot electron induced RF performance degradation in multifinger gate nMOS transistors within the general framework of the degradation mechanism. The RF performance degradation of hot-carrier stressed nMOS transistors can be explained by the transconductance degradation, which resulted from the interface state generation. It has been found that the RF performance degradation, especially minimum noise figure degradation, is more significant than dc performance degradation. From the experimental correlation between RF and dc performance degradation, RF performance degradation can be predicted just by the measurement of dc performance degradation or the initial substrate current. From our experimental results, hot electron induced RF performance degradation should be taken into consideration in the design of the CMOS RF integrated circuits.