Performance and reliability of ultra-thin oxide nMOSFETs under variable body bias

This experimental study investigates the performance and the reliability of nMOSFETs with channel length down to 90 nm and an equivalent oxide thickness of about 1.5 nm under variable body bias. Forward body bias allows to achieve a significant improvement in terms of drive capability especially for low voltage applications, while reverse body bias can be used to reduce the standby power. It is shown that forward body bias improves the lifetime associated with channel hot carrier stress, while it does not alter the time dependent dielectric breakdown process. This work indicates that the combined use of forward and reverse body bias is a powerful approach for extending the scalability of CMOS devices.