Method of testing reliability of semiconductor device

Abstract

The invention provides a method of testing reliability of a semiconductor device, wherein the semiconductor device has negative bias temperature instability NBTI. The method comprises steps of: measuring a NBTI curve of a first set of semiconductor devices; measuring 1/f noise power spectrum density and drain current at a predetermined frequency for the first set of the semiconductor devices, under a condition that the first set of the semiconductor devices are biased at a gate electric field; measuring an equivalent oxide thickness EOT of gate dielectric of the first set of the semiconductor devices; measuring 1/f noise power spectrum density and drain current at the predetermined frequency for a second set of semiconductor devices, under a condition that the second set of the semiconductor devices are biased at the gate electric field; measuring an EOT of gate dielectric of the second set of the semiconductor devices; and evaluating a degradation characteristic of the second set of the semiconductor devices by using the NBTI curve of a first set of the semiconductor devices. The method saves the time required for testing the reliability of a large numbers of semiconductor devices, and will not cause damages to the second set of semiconductor devices.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.