AN IMPROVED NMOS AC HOT-CARRIER LIFETIME PREDICTION ALGORITHM-BASED ON THE DOMINANT DEGRADATION ASYMPTOTE

This study presents a new algorithm for improved prediction of ac hot- carrier lifetime, It is based on identifying and projecting the domina nt degradation asymptote, The algorithm accounts for the stress-bias d ependence of the hot-carrier degradation rate and the nonlinearity of the degradation time-dependence, Detailed model parameter extraction a nd lifetime prediction procedures are explained, and applications of t he new algorithm demonstrated, Significant differences in the predicte d ac-lifetimes are found between the existing and the new algorithms o ver a wide range of CMOS inverter design parameters, such as the input ramp rate and the load capacitance.