Identification of gate electrode discontinuities in submicron CMOStechnologies, and effect on circuit performance |
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Authors: | Jenkins K.A. Burghartz J.N. Agnello P.D. |
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Affiliation: | IBM Res. Div., IBM Thomas J. Watson Res. Center, Yorktown Heights, NY; |
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Abstract: | An experiment to determine the effect of gate electrode resistivity on circuit speed gave unexpected results: circuits with the lowest sheet resistance had the poorest circuit speed. Explanation of this behaviour required development of a new high-frequency method of measuring the impedance of the gate electrode. This method revealed that the circuits with a composite gate electrode had been formed with a partial discontinuity. The measurement technique is described, and the evidence of the discontinuity is shown. The effect of the discontinuity on device and circuit speed is demonstrated |
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