This work investigates the influence of gate-induced floating body effect (GIFBE) on negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) in partial depleted silicon-on-insulator p-type metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (PD-SOI p-MOSFETs). The results indicate GIFBE causes a reduction in the electrical oxide field, leading to an underestimate of NBTI degradation. This can be attributed to the electrons tunneling from the process-induced partial n+ poly gate, and at higher voltages is dominated by the proposed anode electron injection (AEI) model. Moreover, when introducing the mechanical strain to PD-SOI p-MOSFETs result in decreasing the NBTI degradation for BC and FB devices, because increase of effective mass of hole and barrier height to decrease the probability of reaction of NBTI. The degradation of NBTI on FB device less than BC device because of strain-induced band gap narrowing to substrate and p+ poly gate, resulting in the rising of rate of impact ionization in AEI model to increase the accumulation of electrons on body. After that, giving the drain voltage in NBTI stress, the threshold voltage, Vth, shift decreases as drain voltage (VD) rising within the stress condition of VD= -1V. This phenomenon can be attributed to the shorter effective reaction time of hole and Si-H bonds after applying drain voltage during NBTI stress. However, beyond the condition at VD= -1V, the Vth shift rises as the drain voltage increasing. This behavior is resulted from the self-heating effect induced by the higher stress VD to increase the degradation of NBTI.

VLSI circuits in nanometer VLSI technology experience significant variations - intrinsic process variations and variations brought about by transistor degradation or aging. These are generally embodied by yield loss or performance degradation over operation time. Although the degradation can be compensated by the worst-case scenario based over-design approach, it induces remarkable power overhead which is undesirable in tightly power-constrained designs. Dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) is a more powerefficient approach. However, its coarse granularity implies difficulty in handling finegrained variations. These factors have contributed to the growing interest in poweraware robust circuit design. In this thesis, we propose a Built-In Proactive Tuning (BIPT) system, a lowpower typical case design methodology based on dynamic prediction and prevention of possible circuit timing errors. BIPT makes use of the canary circuit to predict the variation induced performance degradation. The approach presented allows each circuit block to autonomously tune its performance according to its own degree of variation. The tuning is conducted offline, either at power on or periodically. A test pattern generator is included to reduce the uncertainty of the aging prediction due to different input vectors. The BIPT system is validated through SPICE simulations on benchmark circuits with consideration of process variations and NBTI, a static stress based PMOS aging effect. The experimental results indicate that to achieve the same variation resilience, proposed BIPT system leads to 33% power savings in case of process variations as compared to the over-design approach. In the case of aging resilience, the approach proposed in this thesis leads to 40% less power than the approach of over-design while 30% less power as compared to DVS with NBTI effect modeling.

Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(情報学) / 甲第19137号 / 情博第583号 / 新制||情||102 / 32088 / 京都大学大学院情報学研究科通信情報システム専攻 / (主査)教授 小野寺 秀俊, 教授 髙木 直史, 教授 佐藤 高史 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(情報学) / 甲第19137号 / 情博第583号 / 新制||情||102(附属図書館) / 32088 / 京都大学大学院情報学研究科通信情報システム専攻 / (主査)教授 小野寺 秀俊, 教授 髙木 直史, 教授 佐藤 高史 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Informatics / Kyoto University / DFAM

No description available.

CMOS feature size scaling has been a source of dramatic performance gains, but it has come at a cost of on-chip wear-out. Negative Bias Temperature Instability (NBTI) is one of the main on-chip wear-out problems which questions the reliability of a chip. To check the accuracy of Reaction-Diffusion (RD) model, this work first proposes to compare the NBTI wear-out data from the RD wear-out model and the reliability simulator - Ultrasim RelXpert, by monitoring the activity of the register file on a Leon3 processor. The simulator wear-out data obtained is considered to be the baseline data and is used to tune the RD model using a novel technique time slicing. It turns out that the tuned RD model NBTI degradation is on an average 80% accurate with respect to RelXpert simulator and its calculation is approximately 8 times faster than the simulator. We come up with a waveform compression technique, for the activity waveforms from the Leon3 register file, which consumes 131KB compared to 256MB required without compression, and also provides 91% accuracy in NBTI degradation, compared to the same obtained without compression. We also propose a NBTI ΔVth estimation/prediction technique to reduce the time consumption of the tuned RD model threshold voltage calculation by an order of with one day degradation being 93% within the same of the tuned RD model. This work further proposes to a novel NBTI Degradation Predictor (NDP), to predict the future NBTI degradation, in a DE2 FPGA for WCET benchmarks. Also we measure the ΔVth variation across the 4 corners of the DE2 FPGA running a single Leon3, which varies from 0.08% to 0.11% of the base Vth.

La course à la miniaturisation requiert l'introduction d'architectures de transistors innovantes enremplacement des technologies conventionnelles sur substrat de silicium. Ainsi la technologie UTBB-FDSOI permet d'améliorer notablement l'intégrité électrostatique et assure une transition progressive vers les structures 3D multigrilles. Ces dispositifs diffèrent des structures conventionnelles par la présence d'un oxyde enterré qui va non seulement modifier l'électrostatique mais également introduire une nouvelle interface de type Si/SiO2 sujette à d'éventuelles dégradations. Par ailleurs, la réduction des dimensions des transistors s'accompagne d'une augmentation de la dispersion des paramètres électriques. En parallèle, le vieillissement de ces transistors introduit une forme additionnelle de variabilité : la variabilité temporelle, qu'il convient d'intégrer à cette composante moyenne de dégradation. Ce travail de thèse est développé sur quatre chapitres, où nous nous intéressons dans le premier chapitre aux évolutions technologiques nécessaires pour passer des technologies CMOS standards (40LP, 28LP) à cette technologie UTBB-FDSOI. Puis dans le second chapitre, nous abordons la dégradation moyenne des transistors et l'impact de l'architecture sur la fiabilité des dispositifs, étudiés sur les mécanismes de dégradations NBTI et HCI. Le troisième chapitre donne au niveau transistor une description analytique et physique de la variabilité temporelle induite par le NBTI. Enfin, cette variabilité temporelle est intégrée au niveau cellules SRAM dans le quatrième chapitre afin de prédire les distributions des tensions minimums de fonctionnement (Vmin) des mémoires SRAM. / The classical CMOS structure is reaching its scaling limits at the 20nm node and innovative architectures of transistors are required to replace these conventional Bulk transistors. UTBB-FDSOI transistors can improve significantly the electrostatic integrity and ensure a smooth transition to 3D multi-gates devices that will be required for sub-10nm nodes. The main difference compared to conventional transistor is related to the integration of a buried oxide (BOX) underneath the silicon film. This latter impacts the electrostatic behavior of these devices and introduces an additional Si/SiO2 interface which may be degraded due to ageing. It is then necessary to evaluate its impact on the NBTI and HCI reliability mechanisms. Besides, transistor scaling leads to an increasing variability which translates into an increased dispersion of the electrical parameters of the transistors. Meanwhile, time dependent variability due to ageing needs to be added to the average degradation component. This PhD done in STMicroelectronics R&D center is divided into four chapters: in the first one, the main technological developments necessary to keep on sustaining Moore's law requirements resulting in the UTBBFDSOI structure introduction is discussed. Then in the second chapter the architecture impact on the average reliability mechanism is discussed at transistor and Ring Oscillators' levels. In the third chapter, the time dependent variability due to NBTI is described and compared to time-zero variability. Finally the last chapter focuses on the SRAM cells reliability and a method is developed to predict minimum operating voltage (Vmin) distributions of SRAM memory.

La mise à l'échelle de la technologie CMOS classique augmente les performances des circuits numériques grâce à la possibilité d'incorporation de composants de circuit supplémentaires dans la même zone de silicium. La technologie FDSOI 28nm de ST Microélectroniques est une stratégie d'échelle innovante qui maintient une structure de transistor planaire et donc une meilleure performance sans augmentation des coûts de fabrication de puces pour les applications basse tension. Il est important de s'assurer que l'augmentation des fonctionnalités et des performances ne se fasse pas au détriment de la fiabilité réduite, ce qui est assuré en répondant aux exigences des normes internationales ISO26262 pour les applications critiques dans les environnements automobile et industriel. Les entreprises de semi-conducteurs, pour se conformer à ces normes, doivent donc présenter des capacités d'estimation de la fiabilité au stade de la conception du circuit, qui est pour l'instant évaluer qu'après la fabrication d'un circuit numérique. Ce travail se concentre sur le vieillissement des standard cell et des circuits numériques avec le temps sous l'influence du mécanisme de dégradation du NBTI pour une large gamme de variations de processus, de tension et de température (PVT) et la compensation de vieillissement avec l'application de la tension à la face arrière (Body-Bias). L'un des principaux objectifs de cette thèse est la mise en place d'une infrastructure d'analyse de fiabilité composée d'outils logiciels et d'un modèle de vieillissement dans un cadre industriel d'estimation du taux de défaillance des circuits numériques au stade de la conception des circuits développés en technologie ST 28nm FDSOI. / Scaling of classical CMOS technology provides an increase in performance of digital circuits owing to the possibility of incorporation of additional circuit components within the same silicon area. 28nm FDSOI technology from ST Microelectronics is an innovative scaling strategy maintaining a planar transistor structure and thus provide better performance with no increase in silicon chip fabrication costs for low power applications. It is important to ensure that the increased functionality and performance is not at the expense of decreased reliability, which can be ensured by meeting the requirements of international standards like ISO26262 for critical applications in the automotive and industrial settings. Semiconductor companies, to conform to these standards, are thus required to exhibit the capabilities for reliability estimation at the design conception stage most of which, currently, is done only after a digital circuit has been taped out. This work concentrates on Aging of standard cells and digital circuits with time under the influence of NBTI degradation mechanism for a wide range of Process, Voltage and Temperature (PVT) variations and aging compensation using backbiasing. One of the principal aims of this thesis is the establishment of a reliability analysis infrastructure consisting of software tools and gate level aging model in an industrial framework for failure rate estimation of digital circuits at the design conception stage for circuits developed using ST 28nm FDSOI technology.

Les circuits logiques programmables (FPGA) bénéficient des technologies les plus avancés de noeuds CMOS, afin de répondre aux demandes croissantes de haute performance et de faible puissance des circuits intégrés numériques. Cela les rend sensibles aux différents mécanismes de dégradations à l'échelle nanométrique. Dans cette thèse, nous nous concentrons sur le vieillissements des tables de correspondances (LUT) sur FPGA. L'utilisation de la dernière technologie d'échelle réduite et la flexibilité de l'architecture du FPGA, permettent de développer un nouveau banc de test à faible coût pour évaluer la fiabilité en fonction de conditions d'utilisations. Ce banc de test peut-être implanté sur plusieurs véhicules du tests et suivis en temps réel par un logiciel de surveillance développé pendant cette thèse. Nous avons caractérisé la dégradation de temps de propagation de la LUT en fonction du rapport cyclique et la fréquence des vecteurs de stress. Nous avons identifié également que le rapport cyclique affecte fortement le temps en descente et modérément le temps en montée de LUT en raison du mécanisme de vieillissement NBTI, tandis que HCI affecte à la fois les deux temps de propagation. En outre, deux modèles semi-empiriques de la dégradation du temps de propagation de la LUT en raison de NBTI et HCI sont proposés dans ce travail. D'autre part, nous avons analysé l'influence de la tension de seuil et la mobilité du transistor sur la dégradation de temps de propagation de la LUT en utilisant le modèle de simulation du transistor. Enfin, un modèle de dégradation de la LUT prenant en compte l'architecture supposée de la LUT est proposé. Ce travail est idéal pour modéliser la dégradation des FPGA au niveau des portes. / Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) benefit from the most advanced CMOS technology nodes, in order to meet the increasing demands of high performance and low power digital integrated cricuits. This makes tem sensible to various aging mechanisms at nanao-scale. In this thesis we focus on aging degradation of the Look-Up Table (LUT) on FPGAs. Benefits from the latest downscaling technology and the flexibility of the FPGAs architecture, allow to develop a new low cost test bench to assess reliabilty depending on the operation condition. This test bench can be implemented on up to 32 FPGAs ans monitored in real time by a supervisory software we developed in this work. We have characterized the delay degradation of LUT depending on the duty cycle and the frequency of stress vectors. We have identified also that the duty cycle affects strongly the fall and moderately the rise delay of LUT due to the NBTI aging mechanisme, while HCI affects both delays. Furthermore, two semiempirical models of the degradation of LUT timing due to NBTI and HCI are proposed in this work. Moreover, we analyzed the influence of threshokd voltage and the mobility of transistor on the timing degradation of LUT using the simulation model of transistor. Finally a model of degradationof LUT taking into account the supposed LUT architecture has been proposed. This work is edeal to model the degradation of FPGA at gate level.

Esta dissertação explora os desafios agravados pela miniaturização da tecnologia na fabricação e projeto de circuitos integrados digitais. Os efeitos físicos do regime nanométrico reduzem o rendimento da produção e encurtam a vida útil dos dispositivos, restringindo a utilidade dos padrões de projeto convencionais e ameaçando a evolução da tecnologia CMOS como um todo. Nesta dissertação é exposta uma consistente revisão bibliográfica dos principais efeitos físicos parasitas presentes no regime nanométrico. Como o NBTI tem recebido destaque na literatura relacionada à confiabilidade de circuitos, este efeito de envelhecimento recebe destaque também neste texto, sendo explorado mais detalhadamente. Diversas técnicas de avaliação de redução do NBTI são demonstradas, sendo apresentados, em cada um destes tópicos, trabalhos desenvolvidos no âmbito desta dissertação e seus resultados. O circuito proposto como técnica de avaliação de NBTI permite uso de simulações elétricas para análise de degradação de circuitos. A análise da influência do rearranjo da estrutura de transistores para reduzir a degradação quanto ao NBTI apresenta bons resultados e não impede o uso de outras técnicas combinadas. / This thesis explores the challenges worsened by the technology miniaturization in fabrication and design of digital integrated circuits. The physical effects of nanometric regime reduce the production yield and shorten the devices lifetime, restricting the usefulness of standard design flows and threatening the evolution of CMOS technologies. This thesis exposes a consistent bibliographic review about the main aggressive physical effects of nanometric regime. NBTI has received special attention in reliability literature, so this text follows the same strategy, deeply exploring this aging effect. A broad set of NBTI evaluation and mitigation techniques are explained, including developed works in each one of these categories. The proposed circuit as NBTI evaluation technique allows the use of electrical simulation for circuit degradation analysis. The analysis of the transistors arrangement restructuring as a technique for NBTI degradation reduction shows satisfactory results, while does not restrict the use of other combined techniques.