RF and Time-domain Techniques for Evaluating Novel Semiconductor Transistors

This book presents a variety of techniques using high-frequency (RF) and time-domain measurements to understand the electrical performance of novel, modern transistors made of materials such as graphene, carbon nanotubes, and silicon-on-insulator, and using new transistor structures. The author explains how to use conventional RF and time- domain measurements to characterize the performance of the transistors. In addition, he explains how novel transistors may be subject to effects such as self-heating, period-dependent output, non-linearity, susceptibility to short-term degradation, DC-invisible structural defects, and a different response to DC and transient inputs. Readers will understand that in order to fully understand and characterize the behavior of a novel transistor, there is an arsenal of dynamic techniques available. In addition to abstract concepts, the reader will learn of practical tips required to achieve meaningful measurements, and will understand the relationship between these measurements and traditional, conventional DC characteristics.

Keith A. Jenkins was a Research Staff Member at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center from 1983 to 2018. In this position, he had the privilege of working with device development, technology evaluation, and circuit design, leading to research in a large variety of device and circuit subjects. These include high frequency measurement techniques, electron beam circuit testing, radiation-device interactions, low temperature electronics, SOI technology, substrate crosstalk in circuits, frequency response of nanoscale devices and studying the impact of self-heating in advanced CMOS technologies. He also worked to design circuits for analog on-chip self-measurement, including jitter and phase error measurement, and on-product reliability monitoring. He designed several compact and efficient structures to measure device performance, uniformity and device reliability, in order to replace the discrete transistor structures usually used for these studies.