Identification of gate electrode discontinuities in submicron CMOS technologies, and effect on circuit performance

Author

Jenkins, Keith A. ; Burghartz, Joachim N. ; Agnello, Paul D.

Author_Institution

IBM Res. Div., IBM Thomas J. Watson Res. Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, USA

Volume

43

Issue

5

fYear

1996

fDate

5/1/1996 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

759

Lastpage

765

Abstract

An experiment to determine the effect of gate electrode resistivity on circuit speed gave unexpected results: circuits with the lowest sheet resistance had the poorest circuit speed. Explanation of this behaviour required development of a new high-frequency method of measuring the impedance of the gate electrode. This method revealed that the circuits with a composite gate electrode had been formed with a partial discontinuity. The measurement technique is described, and the evidence of the discontinuity is shown. The effect of the discontinuity on device and circuit speed is demonstrated

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; VLSI; electric impedance measurement; integrated circuit measurement; network analysers; circuit performance; circuit speed; electrode resistivity; gate electrode discontinuities; high-frequency method; impedance measurement; partial discontinuity; sheet resistance; submicron CMOS technologies; CMOS technology; Conductivity; Conductors; Delay; Electrodes; Integrated circuit interconnections; Inverters; MOS devices; Silicides; Threshold voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.491253

Filename

491253