On-die CMOS leakage current sensor for measuring process variation in sub-90nm generations

This paper describes an on-die leakage current sensor in 1.2V, 90nm CMOS technology for accurately measuring process variation. Results based on measured leakage data show (i) higher signal-to-noise ratio and (ii) reduced sensitivity to supply and P/N skew variations compared to prior designs, while the proposed sensor only requires a single bias generator even for multi-bit resolution sensing. A 6-channel leakage current monitor testchip fabricated in 90nm dual-Vt CMOS is also described.