Enhancement of Transistor-to-Transistor Variability Due to Total Dose Effects in 65-nm MOSFETs

We studied device-to-device variations as a function of total dose in MOSFETs, using specially designed test structures and procedures aimed at maximizing matching between transistors. Degradation in nMOSFETs is less severe than in pMOSFETs and does not show any clear increase in sample-to-sample variability due to the exposure. At doses smaller than 1 Mrad(SiO₂) variability in pMOSFETs is also practically unaffected, whereas at very high doses—in excess of tens of Mrad(SiO₂)—variability in the on-current is enhanced in a way not correlated to pre-rad variability. The phenomenon is likely due to the impact of random dopant fluctuations on total ionizing dose effects.