A Powerful and Sensitive Gauge for Plasma-Process-Induced Damage in Differential Amplifier Circuit Design

Plasma-process-induced damage (PPID) in the semiconductor process is a common phenomenon influencing gate-oxide reliability and circuit performance. How to reduce this effect to an acceptable level is a key issue in recent semiconductor manufacturing. In this paper, a differential amplifier circuit plus designed antenna test patterns to powerfully detect this plasma impact on gate-oxide integrity is proposed. In circuit simulation, the degree of the charging effect in the process from a different back-end metal or via layers on gate-oxide reliability can be effectively gauged. This valuable information can be returned to the process engineers to optimally adjust the plasma process if certain circuit products request a precise and excellent device performance.