Modeling for SRAM reliability degradation due to gate oxide breakdown with a compact current model

Abstract

Gate oxide breakdown (GOBD) degrades the performance of SRAMs. In this paper, a modeling methodology for SRAM reliability degradation due to GOBD is implemented with a compact current model. SRAM lifetime is obtained from Monte Carlo simulations while considering the duty cycle distribution and process variations. We analyzed the lifetime distribution and failure probability of SRAM cells under different stress, and found that the data cache with a duty cycle distribution closer to 50% has a lower failure probability. Moreover, the effect of Error Correcting Codes (ECC) is also studied.