A test structure for characterizing local device mismatches

Abstract

We present a test structure for statistical characterization of local device mismatches. The structure contains densely populated SRAM devices arranged in an addressable manner. Measurements on a testchip fabricated in an advanced 65 nm process show little spatial correlation. We vary the nominal threshold voltage of the devices by changing the threshold-adjust implantations and observe that the ratio of standard deviation to mean gets worse with threshold scaling. The large variations observed in the extracted threshold voltage statistics indicate that the random dopant fluctuation is the likely reason behind mismatch in the adjacent devices. © 2006 IEEE.