Estimation of NBTI Degradation using IDDQ Measurement

Negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) has emerged as a major reliability degradation factor in nano-scale CMOS technology. In this paper, we analyze the impact of NBTI degradation in both the maximum operating frequency (f<sub>MAX</sub>) and the total standby leakage current (I<sub>DDQ</sub>) of digital CMOS circuits. Our analysis shows that due to NBTI, both f<sub>MAX</sub> and I<sub>DDQ</sub> reduce with time with a fix exponent of 1/6 (~t<sup>1/6</sup>). Based on this analysis, we develop temporal f<sub>MAX</sub>-I<sub>DDQ</sub> model and apply it to several ISCAS'85 benchmark circuits designed using BPTM 70nm file. Results show that f<sub>MAX</sub> and I<sub>DDQ</sub> can reduce by more than 8% and 30% in 3 years operation time, respectively. Furthermore, we show that f<sub>MAX</sub> and I<sub>DDQ</sub> degradations are highly correlated throughout the operating lifetime, and using this fact, one can avoid expensive f<sub>MAX</sub> testing and predict f<sub>MAX</sub> degradations as a function of I<sub>DDQ</sub> measures.

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