Effect of Cryogenic Thermal Stress Cycles on the Performance of Integrated Resistors

Cryogenic operation of CMOS circuits is essential for scalable quantum computing and other high-performance applications. Although much research has focused on the behavior of devices at low temperatures, the long-term effects of repeated thermal stress cycles remain largely unexplored. This work investigates the impact of consecutive cooling-heating cycles between 4K and 280K on the electrical characteristics of 65nm CMOS polysilicon resistors with varying sizes and doping types. Using a fully automated cryogenic measurement setup, eight full thermal cycles were applied to three different resistor structures. Resistance vs. temperature (R–T) characteristics were measured in the full temperature range for each cycle. The results reveal the appearance of hysteresis in the curves R–T after thermal cycling, with the most pronounced effects observed in larger devices. In particular, the maximum resistance variation remained below 2% of the nominal value, a trend that is maintained after repeating the thermal cycle 8 times. These findings suggest that while 65nm CMOS resistors are suitable for cryogenic electronic systems, care has to be taken when designing high-precision systems depending on the value of resistors such as comparators or data converters.