Self-heating in surrounding gate transistors can degrade its on-current performance and reduce lifetime. If a transistor heats/cools with time-constants less than the inverse of the operating frequency, a predictable, frequency-independent performance is expected; if not, the signal pattern must be optimized for highest performance. Typically, time-constants are measured by expensive, ultra-fast instruments with high temporal resolution. Instead, here we demonstrate an alternate, inexpensive, cyclostationary measurement technique to characterize self-heating (and cooling) with sub-microsecond resolution. The results are independently confirmed by direct imaging of the transient heating/cooling of the channel temperature by the thermoreflectance (TR) method. A routine use of the proposed technique will help improve the surrounding gate transistor design and shorten the design cycle.
@article{arxiv.1609.00346,
title = {Characterizing Self-Heating Dynamics Using Cyclostationary Measurements},
author = {SangHoon Shin and Muhammad Masuduzzaman and Muhammad Ashraful Alam},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.00346},
year = {2016}
}