Abstract
The scaling of gate oxide leads to fabrication of high performance MOSFETs. When oxide scaling, however, a progressive breakdown phenomenon has been observed. This progressive breakdown event produces a stepping increase of oxide leakage current. This phenomenon is often refers to as Multi-SBD (Multiple Soft Breakdown). Therefore, gate oxide scaling can be limited by Multi-SBD occurring during device operation lifetime. Hence, it is essential to study the impact of multiple on soft breakdown. CMOS inverter is the most basic element of digital circuits. In this work, the impact of CMOS inverter by Multi-SBD has been investigated. The breakdown modeling proposed based on the physical measurement data can be used for determining how strongly gate oxide soft breakdown affects circuit operation. Such assessment is completed by simulation study on a CMOS ring oscillator operation after Multi-SBD occurs in the circuit.