Impact of Cryogenic Bias Temperature Instabilities on Low-Voltage Operation of 22nm Fully-Depleted Silicon-On-Insulator MOSFETs

The 22nm fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FDSOI) technology is considered near-ideal for creating low-power cryogenic control electronics, a key milestone in the pursuit of large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computers. However, it is essential to assess the device reliability under conditions of interest, as various gate stack reliability phenomena such as bias temperature instability (BTI) and hot carrier degradation (HCD) have been reported active at 4K. This study comprehensively analyzes the shift in device parameters induced by BTI stress and recovery from room temperature down to 4K. A new method of assessing the impact of cryogenic BTI on ultra-low-power applications is presented, showcasing how nMOS devices of the 22nm technology prove to be ready for long-term cryo-operation, whereas pMOS devices do not.