Reverse temperature dependence of circuit performance in high- k/metal-gate technology

The temperature dependence of ring-oscillator delay of high-k/metal- gate (HKMG) and poly-Si/SiON technologies are analyzed. HKMG gate stacks drive significantly stronger threshold temperature dependence over poly-Si/SiON. This effect, together with the reduced mobility temperature sensitivity, result in higher drive current at elevated temperature for HKMG devices. This is in contrast to poly-Si/SiON technology where the low-driven current performance-limiting corner is typically at high temperature. © 2009 IEEE.