Multiple-terminal gate charging effect - competing/compensating charging behavior

The charging effect from the antenna at the multiple nodes of MOSFET devices was investigated using bulk-CMOS technology. We demonstrated experimentally that the antenna size at source and drain terminals can modulate gate charging behavior, just like that at the gate terminal. However, gate charging damage is lessened when the source and/or drain antenna size increases, which is an effect opposite to that of the gate antenna. The effect can be explained by a multiple-terminal gate charging model, revealing the competing and compensating nature of the incoming charging current among the gate, source, and drain terminal of the MOSFET. The model also indicates a similar effect for the N-well antenna in P MOSFETs. The finding here leads to an application that actually utilizes metal antennae to protect gate oxide in realistic circuits.