Reverse Body Bias Dependence of HCI Reliability in Advanced FinFET

The effect of reverse body bias on hot carrier (HCI) reliability is studied in details at CHE (channel hot carrier) and DAHC (drain avalanche hot carrier) stress conditions in advanced standard gate n-channel FinFET transistors. HCI degradation is found to be independent of reverse body bias, when the body bias, Vb is low (0V ~ -1V). However, HCI starts to aggravate at further negative Vb (-1V ~ -2V) for both CHE and DAHC conditions, showing strong dependence on the transverse electric field. The physical mechanism is attributed to the increased e-h pair generations, enhancing electron trapping in the gate oxide. This study addresses a key reliability constraint for circuit designers while designing tuned body bias circuitry.