THE IMPACT OF NMOSFET HOT-CARRIER DEGRADATION ON CMOS ANALOG SUBCIRCUIT PERFORMANCE

This study presents some of the first experimental data on the impact of NMOSFET hot-carrier-induced degradation on CMOS analog subcircuit p erformance, Because of circuit design requirements, most NMOSFET's use d for analog applications are biased in the saturation region with a l ow gate-to-source voltage, Under such operating conditions, in additio n to interface states, significant numbers of hole traps are also gene rated inside the gate oxide, Because acceptor-type interface states ar e mostly unoccupied in the saturation region, hole traps are found to have a much more significant impact on analog NMOSFET device performan ce, The hot-carrier-induced degradation of analog subcircuit performan ce is also found to be quite sensitive to the particular circuit desig n and operating conditions, Circuit performance and reliability tradeo ffs are examined.