Self-Heating Effect in a 65 nm MOSFET at Cryogenic Temperatures

We characterized the thermal behavior of a 65 nm bulk CMOS transistor, by measuring the self-heating effect (SHE) as a function of bias condition. We demonstrated that at a base temperature of 6.5 K the channel temperature of the transistor can increase up to several tens of kelvins due to power dissipation. The thermal behavior of the transistor is determined not only by the thermal response of the transistor itself but also by the thermal properties of the surroundings, i.e., source, drain, bulk, and gate interfaces, metal contacts, and vias. On top of it, the thermal response is bias-dependent through bias dependence of power and self-heating. This information becomes relevant for proper design of integrated circuits for quantum computing or other cryogenic applications, where the circuitry requires to be operated at a stable cryogenic temperature.