Hot-electron reliability and ESD latent damage

The impact of noncatastrophic electrostatic discharge (ESD) stress on hot-electron reliability as well as the effect of hot-electron (HE) injection on the ESD protection threshold are discussed. It is found that there is a factor-of-two-to-four deterioration in hot-electron reliability after low-level ESD stress. These two effects can be viewed as similar although HE is a low-current long-time process and ESD is a high-current short-time process. Therefore, techniques for characterizing hot-electron degradation were applied to measure quantitatively the damage due to ESD stress. This technique showed electrical evidence of current filaments during an ESD discharge