RTN and BTI in nanoscale MOSFETs: A comprehensive statistical simulation study

Abstract

This paper presents a thorough statistical investigation of random telegraph noise (RTN) and bias temperature instabilities (BTIs) in nanoscale MOSFETs. By means of 3D TCAD 'atomistic' simulations, we evaluate the statistical distribution in capture/emission time constants and in threshold voltage shift (DVT) amplitudes due to single trapped charge, comparing its impact on RTN and BTI. Our analysis shows that the individual BTI DVT steps are distributed identically as the RTN DVT steps. However, the individual traps in a device cannot be considered as uncorrelated sources of noise because their mutual interaction is fundamental in determining the dispersion of capture/emission time constants in BTI simulation. Further, we show that devices strongly affected by RTN are not necessarily strongly affected by BTI (and vice versa), revealing the uncorrelated nature of these two reliability issues. The presented results are of utmost importance for profoundly understanding the differences and similarities in the statistical behavior of RTN and BTI phenomena and assisting a reliability-aware circuit design. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.