The definition from SEMATECH of wafer level reliability test is: a methodology to assess the reliability impact of tools and processes by testing mechanism-specific test structures under accelerated conditions during device processing. Because wafer level reliability test is the accelerated test, it owns some different characters with common long time test in terms of failure mechanisms, test procedures, life time prediction, test structures design and so on. In this book, all items of wafer level reliability of CMOS devices and processes will be discussed. The purpose of this book is to provide a good and urgently need reference on MOS device reliability. The authors discuss how to enhance the veracity of lifetime prediction and the effects to degrade the veracity deeply. Finally, a discussion of the problems with wafer level reliability in terms of the engineering applications and research is given.

A comprehensive treatment of all aspects of CMOS reliability wearout mechanisms This book covers everything students and professionals need to know about CMOS reliability wearout mechanisms, from basic concepts to the tools necessary to conduct reliability tests and analyze the results. It is the first book of its kind to bring together the pertinent physics, equations, and procedures for CMOS technology reliability in one place. Divided into six relatively independent topics, the book covers: Introduction to Reliability Gate Dielectric Reliability Negative Bias Temperature Instability Hot Carrier Injection Electromigration Reliability Stress Voiding Chapters conclude with practical appendices that provide very basic experimental procedures for readers who are conducting reliability experiments for the first time. Reliability Wearout Mechanisms in Advanced CMOS Technologies is ideal for students and new engineers who are looking to gain a working understanding of CMOS technology reliability. It is also suitable as a professional reference for experienced circuit design engineers, device design engineers, and process engineers.

Over decades, scientists have been scaling devices to increasingly smaller feature sizes for ever better performance of complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology to meet requirements on speed, complexity, circuit density, power consumption and ultimately cost required by many advanced applications. However, going to these ultra-scaled CMOS devices also brings some drawbacks. Aging due to bias-temperature-instability (BTI) and Hot carrier injection (HCI) is the dominant cause of functional failure in large scale logic circuits. The aging phenomena, on top of process variations, translate into complexity and reduced design margin for circuits. Such issues call for "Design for Reliability". In order to increase the overall design efficiency, it is important to (i) study the impact of aging on circuit level along with the transistor level understanding (ii) calibrate the theoretical findings with measurement data (iii) implementing tools that analyze the impact of BTI and HCI reliability on circuit timing into VLSI design process at each stage. In this work, post silicon measurements of a 28nm HK-MG technology are done to study the effect of aging on Frequency Degradation of digital circuits. A novel voltage controlled ring oscillator (VCO) structure, developed by NIMO research group is used to determine the effect of aging mechanisms like NBTI, PBTI and SILC on circuit parameters. Accelerated aging mechanism is proposed to avoid the time consuming measurement process and extrapolation of data to the end of life thus instead of predicting the circuit behavior, one can measure it, within a short period of time. Finally, to bridge the gap between device level models and circuit level aging analysis, a System Level Reliability Analysis Flow (SyRA) developed by NIMO group, is implemented for a TSMC 65nm industrial level design to achieve one-step reliability prediction for digital design.

Due to the ever increasing electric fields in scaled CMOS devices, reliability is becoming a showstopper for further scaled technology nodes. Although several groups have already demonstrated functional Si channel devices with aggressively scaled Equivalent Oxide Thickness (EOT) down to 5Å, a 10 year reliable device operation cannot be guaranteed anymore due to severe Negative Bias Temperature Instability. This book focuses on the reliability of the novel (Si)Ge channel quantum well pMOSFET technology. This technology is being considered for possible implementation in next CMOS technology nodes, thanks to its benefit in terms of carrier mobility and device threshold voltage tuning. We observe that it also opens a degree of freedom for device reliability optimization. By properly tuning the device gate stack, sufficiently reliable ultra-thin EOT devices with a 10 years lifetime at operating conditions are demonstrated. The extensive experimental datasets collected on a variety of processed 300mm wafers and presented here show the reliability improvement to be process - and architecture-independent and, as such, readily transferable to advanced device architectures as Tri-Gate (finFET) devices. We propose a physical model to understand the intrinsically superior reliability of the MOS system consisting of a Ge-based channel and a SiO2/HfO2 dielectric stack. The improved reliability properties here discussed strongly support (Si)Ge technology as a clear frontrunner for future CMOS technology nodes.

This invaluable resource tells the complete story of failure mechanisms—from basic concepts to the tools necessary to conduct reliability tests and analyze the results. Both a text and a reference work for this important area of semiconductor technology, it assumes no reliability education or experience. It also offers the first reference book with all relevant physics, equations, and step-by-step procedures for CMOS technology reliability in one place. Practical appendices provide basic experimental procedures that include experiment design, performing stressing in the laboratory, data analysis, reliability projections, and interpreting projections.

Wafer-level testing refers to a critical process of subjecting integrated circuits and semiconductor devices to electrical testing while they are still in wafer form. Burn-in is a temperature/bias reliability stress test used in detecting and screening out potential early life device failures. This hands-on resource provides a comprehensive analysis of these methods, showing how wafer-level testing during burn-in (WLTBI) helps lower product cost in semiconductor manufacturing. Engineers learn how to implement the testing of integrated circuits at the wafer-level under various resource constraints. Moreover, this unique book helps practitioners address the issue of enabling next generation products with previous generation testers. Practitioners also find expert insights on current industry trends in WLTBI test solutions.