Off-State TDDB Degradation of RC-Features and Threshold Voltage on Advanced FinFETs from RF Measurements for 5G Applications

The degradation effects on the RC characteristics of nanometer-scale FinFETs under off-state time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) conditions are quantified. We assess the impact of long-term stress on device performance by determining extrinsic resistances, channel resistance, and gate-to-drain and gate-to-source capacitances from S-parameter measurements at various gate biases, monitoring their changes over time. Moreover, through further processing of the S-parameters, we monitor the increase in threshold voltage during degradation. Since the increase in resistance, the introduction of parasitic capacitance due to charge trapping/detrapping effects, and the rise in threshold voltage can severely compromise finFET performance in high-demand applications, our RF-measurement-based methodology serves as a valuable tool for device assessment intended for advanced technologies like 5G, where efficiency and signal integrity are paramount. The extracted parameters enable excellent model-experiment correlation for Z-parameters up to 30 GHz across different degradation stages.