Modulation Of HCI in I/O analog devices Through Process Specifications

Hot carrier injection (HCI) is one of the more significant reliability issues in advanced CMOS technologies. If it is more and more critical in thin gate-oxides due to gate-length scaling although supply voltage is reduced, it is more problematic in thicker gate-oxide due to high voltages operation needed for input/output (I/O) devices. In this paper, we discuss important process steps from the fabrication line that may modulate HCI damage in thick gate-oxides MOSFETs dedicated to analog operation.