Reduction of Hot Carrier Degradation of FinFETs Due to Short-Pulse Stress

Hot carrier degradation of field effect transistors is shown to be reduced when the transistors are subjected to very short pulses. A technique for applying short gate pulses to devices and measuring the change in drain current is described. Applied to FinFETs fabricated on SOI substrates, measurements show that the degradation can be almost three times less than that of DC conditions when the pulses are of nanosecond duration. This reduction is explained to be the result of reducing the self-heating of the devices during hot carrier stress.