Bias and temperature dependence of hot carrier lifetime from 77 K to 300 K

It is well established that the worst case bias condition for n-MOSFET hot carrier induced device degradation at room temperature is that corresponding to maximum substrate current (V/sub g/ approximately=1/2V/sub d/). However, we find that the worst case bias condition changes to maximum gate bias (i.e. V/sub g/=V/sub d/) at low temperature. In addition, the activation energy of hot carrier lifetime changes implying the dominant hot carrier damage mechanism is a function of temperature. Among other findings, we also determined that one of the primary reasons for the great reduction of hot carrier device lifetime at low temperature is that a given amount of damage simply induces a greater reduction of device performance at low temperature.<>