Ballistic phonon enhanced NBTI

Abstract

Advanced integrated circuit has thermal energy removal issue due to heat dissipated by current at the drain junction of MOSFET. This is a problem only when millions of transistors are generating the thermal energy. In sub-100nm CMOS technology where the transistor channel lengths are smaller than the phonon scattering mean-free-path, a new kind of drain junction heating problem arises due to ballistic phonon effect. This new heating problem exists even when there is only one transistor operating. The impact of this new heating phenomenon on long term reliability of transistor is examined for the first time here. We show that NBTI in pMOS is severely worsened.