The hot carrier reliability characteristics of a bend-gate MOSFET have been extensively investigated. Compared with the conventional device structure, the bend-gate nMOSFET shows a shorter device lifetime for both maximum substrate current and high gate bias conditions. From the impact ionization rate (I-sub/Id) versus gate-voltage characteristics, the enhanced degradation of the bend-gate MOSFET can be explained by the current crowding effect at the drain corner.