A Fully Integrated Monolithic Monitor for Aging-Induced Leakage Current Characterization

This paper presents a precision, wide-dynamic-range leakage current sensor tailored for in-situ monitoring of aging mechanisms such as Time-Dependent Dielectric Breakdown (TDDB) in both active and passive components. The proposed architecture supports high-voltage stress and is fully monolithic, integrating a current-to-voltage front-end, tunable gain amplifier, and a successive approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC). To validate the concept, a discrete-component prototype was implemented and evaluated across a leakage current range of 1nA to 1 μA. The sensor achieves 12-bit resolution with measured integral nonlinearity (INL) and differential nonlinearity (DNL) within ±1.5 LSB and ±0.3 LSB, respectively. Compared to prior monitors, the design enables linear current digitization and compatibility with high-voltage stress, features essential for accurate and scalable TDDB characterization. Applications include embedded reliability monitoring in power converters, analog building blocks, and large-scale aging test arrays.