Time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) reliability analysis of CMOS analog and radio frequency (RF) circuits

In this paper, a methodology to analyze the time dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) reliability of CMOS analog and radio frequency (RF) circuits has been proposed and applied to common circuit building blocks, including an operational amplifier, a RF mixer, and a comparator. The analysis includes both finding the transistors in the circuit topology that are the most sensitive to TDDB degradation, as well as, observing the trends of TDDB degradation over a series of nanoscale process technologies for each building block. Analysis outcomes suggest that the TDDB degradation resilience goes up for operational amplifiers and comparators whereas it decreases for RF mixers as the device channel lengths come down. The trends have been explained on the basis of the circuit block topology and device physics.