MOSFET Degradation Under RF Stress

We report on the degradation of MOS transistors under RF stress. Hot-carrier degradation, negative-bias temperature instability, and gate dielectric breakdown are investigated. The findings are compared to established voltage- and field-driven models. The experimental results indicate that the existing models are well applicable into the gigahertz range to describe the degradation of MOS transistors in an RF circuit. The probability of gate dielectric breakdown appears to reduce rapidly at such high stress frequencies, increasing the design margin for RF power circuits.