Gate oxide reliability characterization in the 100ps regime with ultra-fast transmission line pulsing system

An Ultra-fast Transmission Line Pulsing (UFTLP) system is demonstrated. Very short pulses down to 40 ps with a large voltage range (up to 100 V in this work) can be generated. Gate oxide reliability is quantified in the 100 ps regime for the first time. Hard and soft breakdown transitions are clearly captured, and the results explain why some logic cells still function after breakdown events.