Intrinsic dielectric stack reliability of a high performance bulk planar 20nm replacement gate high-k metal gate technology and comparison to 28nm gate first high-k metal gate process

We compare the intrinsic reliability of the dielectric stack of a high performance bulk planar 20nm replacement gate technology to the reliability of high performance bulk planar 28 nm gate first high-k metal gate (HKMG) technology, developed within the IBM Alliance. Comparable N/PFET TDDB and comparable/improved NFET PBTI are shown to be achievable for similar T_inv. The choice to not include channel silicon germanium as a PFET performance element in the 20nm technology impact NBTI, driving a potential tradeoff between NBTI and PBTI. The complexity of integrating such performance elements while accounting for reliability/performance tradeoffs demands their selection during technology definition with due consideration to realistic product usage conditions.