Hot Electron Induced Retention Time Degradation in MOS Dynamic RAMs

Abstract

Hot electron induced MOSFET instabilities have been found to significantly degrade the retention time of dynamic RAMs. Failure is due to the effect of increased subthreshold leakage on balanced sense nodes. Plasma nitride passivations greatly increase the degradation rate. The complex synergism between device degradation and DRAM parametric shift demonstrates the necessity of accelerated stress of functional modules.