Impact and measurement of short term threshold instabilities in MOSFETs of analog circuits

Abstract

Short term threshold instabilities may cause erratic behavior in analog circuits like comparators and analog-to-digital-converters. As conventional characterization procedures have not been appropriately sensitized to such issues, this kind of erratic behavior usually only occurs in products where it is very difficult to identify. Therefore, for example prior to the introduction of a new gate stack, it is essential to do a careful experimental characterization of short term threshold instabilities, which goes beyond standard NBTI or PBTI measurements. A reliable forecast of the effect of threshold instabilities on the performance of analog circuits will require circuit simulations taking the threshold instabilities into account.