Novel Re-configurable Circuits For Aging Characterization: Connecting Devices to Circuits

Circuit reliability is a significant concern in scaled technologies. Physical aging models derived by DC stress on discrete devices are accurate to an extent, but can be further improved by evaluating the behaviour of simple circuits such as ring oscillators (RO). In this work, we establish correlation between individual device degradation to circuit’s figure of merit (frequency degradation) to refine understanding of the predictive ability of DC models. We further present novel re-configurable circuits that enables different waveform scenarios seen in design to bridge gaps between DC-stressed device aging and complex circuits. Unique features of this work include: (1) Correlating discrete device degradation to circuit performance degradation, (2) development of a novel PMOS/NMOS aging isolator circuit (PNI) which can isolate the aging contribution of a single device type, and (3) development of a state-of-art re-configurable circuit that modulate waveforms to customize the aging contribution from any particular physical mechanism (NBTI, PBTI, N-HCI or P-HCI).