Temperature dependence of IDDQ distribution: application for thermal delta IDDQ testing

The increase in process parameter variations and off-state current for deep submicron complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technologies makes conventional (single threshold) I_DDQ testing ineffective. Delta I_DDQ testing performed at two temperatures for a given test vector and called ´thermal delta I_DDQ testing´ is a more attractive alternative and is investigated by the authors. On the basis of statistical Monte Carlo simulations and industrial data, it is shown that lowering the temperature from 330 K to 280 K results in a more than times100 reduction of Iddq mean value and approximately times15 reduction of Iddq standard deviation of defect-free 0.18 m CMOS circuits.