Modern microelectronic devices, such as transistors, have characteristic dimensions of only a few nanometers, which leads to a reduced power consumption of single devices, while at the same time allowing an increased number of devices per unit area. Notwithstanding the vast number of advantages, reliability issues like Bias Temperature Instability and Hot Carrier Degradation play an important adverse role in these structures. Broadly speaking, these effects rely on single defects in the microscopic structure which can emerge or be deactivated during normal device operation. When charged, these defects exhibit a detrimental impact on the device characteristics and thus negatively affect the device lifetime. The single charging and discharging events of such defects occur extremely fast and their impact can be difficult to defect. This behavior poses a very interesting challenge for their experimental characterization and detection. Considering general-purpose instruments, single defects can hardly be analyzed at the required level of detail and thus do not lead to very satisfying results.
The focus of this lecture is put on the characterization of single defects (charge pumping, CV measurements and single defects spectroscopy) while selected issues will be worked out in detail. The investigations will be performed by using a measurement box which has been developed at the Institute and is subject to further advancements and improvements. Within this lecture students will deepen their understanding of physical mechanisms in microelectronic devices. Furthermore, they will acquire advanced skills in the area of measurement techniques, measurement setups, developing printed circuit boards, and programming (FPGA, microprocessors, and Python or C/C++).
Time: Monday, 14:15
Location: Seminar room E360, Gußhausstraße 27-29, 5. Stock (room No CD 0520)
Start: Monday, October 9th, 14:15
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