Radiation Tolerance of a 0.18 mm CMOS Process M. Manghisonic,d, L. Rattia,c, V. Reb,c, V. Spezialia,c a Università di Pavia, Dipartimento di Elettronica, 27100 Pavia, Italy b Università di Bergamo, Dipartimento di Ingegneria, 24044 Dalmine, Italy c INFN, Sezione di Pavia, Pavia 27100, Italy d Studio di Microelettronica, STMicroelectronics, 27100 Pavia, Italy 7th International Conference on Advanced Technology and Particle Physics Villa Olmo, 15-19 October 2001

Outline Submicron CMOS technologies and their radiation hardness V.Re, "Radiation Tolerance of a 0.18 mm CMOS Process" Outline Submicron CMOS technologies and their radiation hardness Static, signal and noise characterization of irradiated NMOS and PMOS devices belonging to a 0.18 mm process Comparison with NMOS and PMOS transistors belonging to a 0.35 mm technology 7th International Conference on Advanced Technology and Particle Physics, Villa Olmo, 15-19 October 2001

Submicron CMOS technologies V.Re, "Radiation Tolerance of a 0.18 mm CMOS Process" Submicron CMOS technologies High density mixed-signal front-end systems for high granularity detectors (microstrip, pixel) Reduced thickness of the gate oxide: 0.35 mm: tOX=7.2 nm 0.25 mm: tOX=5.5 nm 0.18 mm: tOX=4 nm Improved radiation hardness Present focus: 0.25 mm CMOS Characterization of the following CMOS generation (0.18 mm) 7th International Conference on Advanced Technology and Particle Physics, Villa Olmo, 15-19 October 2001

Test and irradiation conditions V.Re, "Radiation Tolerance of a 0.18 mm CMOS Process" Test and irradiation conditions 0.18 mm CMOS process by ST Microelectronics Standard open structure layout (no special radiation hard technique) Irradiation up to 100 kGy (10 Mrad) with a 60Co source Devices biased during irradiation at normal operating conditions 7th International Conference on Advanced Technology and Particle Physics, Villa Olmo, 15-19 October 2001

Static characterization: ID-VGS V.Re, "Radiation Tolerance of a 0.18 mm CMOS Process" Static characterization: ID-VGS 7th International Conference on Advanced Technology and Particle Physics, Villa Olmo, 15-19 October 2001

V.Re, "Radiation Tolerance of a 0.18 mm CMOS Process" Threshold voltage PMOS: decrease of less 10 mV in Vth after a 100 kGy dose NMOS: Vth drop of about 10 mV after a 100 kGy dose 7th International Conference on Advanced Technology and Particle Physics, Villa Olmo, 15-19 October 2001

Signal parameters: transconductance V.Re, "Radiation Tolerance of a 0.18 mm CMOS Process" Signal parameters: transconductance 7th International Conference on Advanced Technology and Particle Physics, Villa Olmo, 15-19 October 2001

Noise characterization: noise voltage spectra V.Re, "Radiation Tolerance of a 0.18 mm CMOS Process" Noise characterization: noise voltage spectra Small changes over the entire frequency interval after irradiation Model of the noise power spectral density 4 k T a A 2 + S ( f ) = f n g f m 7th International Conference on Advanced Technology and Particle Physics, Villa Olmo, 15-19 October 2001

Noise characterization: white noise V.Re, "Radiation Tolerance of a 0.18 mm CMOS Process" Noise characterization: white noise Very low radiation sensitivity of the white noise The increase in white noise is never larger than 15% (it is very small in PMOS devices) 7th International Conference on Advanced Technology and Particle Physics, Villa Olmo, 15-19 October 2001

Noise characterization: 1/f noise V.Re, "Radiation Tolerance of a 0.18 mm CMOS Process" Noise characterization: 1/f noise Although to a limited extent, 1/f noise is affected by irradiation The Af parameter increases less than a factor of 2 7th International Conference on Advanced Technology and Particle Physics, Villa Olmo, 15-19 October 2001

0.18 mm process vs 0.35 mm process Threshold Voltage

0.18 mm process vs 0.35 mm process

0.18 mm process vs 0.35 mm process

0.18 mm process vs 0.35 mm process Noise voltage spectrum

V.Re, "Radiation Tolerance of a 0.18 mm CMOS Process" Conclusions Static and noise characterization under irradiation of submicron N and P-channel MOSFETs has been performed The investigated devices exhibited a good radiation tolerance up to 100 kGy absorbed dose of ionizing radiation The intrinsic radiation hardness of submicron CMOS processes has been confirmed 7th International Conference on Advanced Technology and Particle Physics, Villa Olmo, 15-19 October 2001