Characterization and modeling of hot carrier injection in LDMOS for L-band radar application

This paper reports a methodology to correlate Hot Carrier Injection (HCI) degradation mechanism and electrical figures of merit on Lateral-Diffused Metal–Oxide-Semiconductor (LDMOS) transistor. This method is based on RF life test in radar operating conditions coupled to a high drain voltage in order to make visible HCI degradation. We propose drain current modeling vs. time based on a simple extraction procedure. The electron density trapped in the oxide is extracted from hot carrier induced series resistance enhancement model (HISREM – i.e. ΔRd model). From this methodology, the degradation of RF-LDMOS due to HCI is quantified and could be simulated with EDA.