New insights into SILC-based life time extraction

The breakdown (TDDB/SILC) characteristics of nMOS transistors with hafnium-based gate dielectric stacks of various zirconium content were investigated. It is found that the gate stack composition affects the SILC-voltage dependency while the voltage value chosen for SILC monitoring impacts significantly the SILC-based lifetime projection. For the worst case lifetime evaluation, SILC should be monitored at its maximum value rather than at any pre-defined, fixed voltage.