Temperature dependence of device mismatch and harmonic distortion in nanoscale uniaxial-strained pMOSFETs

Abstract

This paper examines the temperature dependence of mismatching and harmonic distortion properties in nanoscale uniaxial strained pMOSFETs. Our results reveal that the temperature dependence of drain current mismatch as well as harmonics distortion can be modulated by uniaxial strain. In the high gate-voltage overdrive (|Vgst|) linear region, the compressively-strained device shows smaller increment in drain current mismatch than the unstrained counterpart as temperature decreases. In the high |Vgst| saturation region, opposite to the unstrained case, the drain current mismatch of the compressively-strained device decreases with temperature. The underlying mechanism is the larger temperature sensitivity of carrier mobility for the strained device. The larger temperature sensitivity of carrier mobility may also results in larger temperature sensitivity of the harmonic distortion amplitudes. Our study may provide insights for analog circuit design using advanced strained devices.