PhD defense of Rania LAJMI

Abstarct :
It is well known that hard environmental conditions, such as high electrical or thermal overvoltage, profoundly affect analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits made using metal oxide technologies in semiconductor technology nodes by accelerating failure mechanisms, such as negative temperature instability (NBTI) or hot carrier injection (HCI) in their lifetime. Even if they trigger slight breakdowns that do not compromise the operation of the circuit, they can have a significant impact on performance (leakage current, noise, operating frequency ...).
This PhD thesis addresses the problem of long-term immunity induced by aging circuits commonly used in today's applications (low dropout voltage regulator LDO, phase locked loop PLL, voltage controlled oscillator VCO, digital to analog converter CAN, power amplifier PA). The surveys are conducted using aging simulations including models of aging mechanisms developed by our team and measurements of circuits implemented in 28 nm FDSOI technology within STMicroelectronics. Accelerated tests were used to assess the risk of reducing robustness over time. Appropriate correction techniques for overcoming aging-induced degradation of circuit performance are proposed and studied.

Jury members:

• M. Philippe BENECH, Professor, Grenoble : Supervisor
• M. Sylvain BOURDEL, Professor, Grenoble : Co- supervisor
• Mrs Estelle LAUGA-LARROZE, Assistante professsor, Grenoble : Co-supervisor
• M. Didier VINCENT , Professor, Saint Etienne : Examiner
• M. Jean-Guy TARTARIN, Professor, Toulouse : Reviewer
• M. Hervé  BARTHELEMY, Professor, Toulon: Reviewer
• M. Florian CACHO, Ingénieur STMicroelectronics-Crolles : Industrial consultant