Hot-carrier and soft-breakdown effects on VCO performance

Author

Xiao, Enjun ; Yuan, J.S. ; Yang, Hong

Author_Institution

Chip Design & Reliability Lab., Univ. of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA

Volume

50

Issue

11

fYear

2002

fDate

11/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2453

Lastpage

2458

Abstract

This paper systematically investigates the hot-carrier- and soft-breakdown-induced performance degradation in a CMOS voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) used in phase-locked-loop frequency synthesizers. After deriving the closed-form equations to predict phase noise and VCO gain, we relate VCO RF performance such as phase noise, tuning range, and gain of VCO subject to electrical stress. The circuit degradations predicted by analytical model equations are verified by SpectraRF simulation using parameters extracted from the experimental data of 0.16 μm CMOS technology. BERT simulation results give VCO performance degradations versus operation time.

Keywords

CMOS analogue integrated circuits; UHF integrated circuits; UHF oscillators; circuit tuning; hot carriers; integrated circuit noise; integrated circuit reliability; phase noise; semiconductor device breakdown; timing jitter; voltage-controlled oscillators; 0.16 micron; 274 to 344 MHz; CMOS voltage-controlled oscillator; IC reliability; MOSFETs; PLL frequency synthesizers; RFIC; SpectraRF simulation; VCO RF performance; VCO gain prediction; analytical model equations; closed-form equations; dielectric breakdown; hot-carrier-induced performance degradation; phase noise prediction; phase-locked-loop synthesizers; soft-breakdown-induced performance degradation; timing jitter; tuning range; Analytical models; CMOS technology; Circuit simulation; Degradation; Equations; Hot carrier effects; Hot carriers; Performance gain; Phase noise; Voltage-controlled oscillators;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9480

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMTT.2002.804632

Filename

1046015