Aging Models: The Basis for Predicting Circuit Reliability

Identifying the mechanisms that trigger future chip reliability issues, plus ways to implement aging models: Today, many products are based on high-performance electronic systems and integrated circuits (ICs), and the importance of these elements is ever-increasing. A certain tension arises here as these applications often call for a large amount of processing power and reliability. The processing power can best be supplied with highly scaled semiconductor technologies. However, these manufacturing technologies were developed for consumer products. They are considered relatively susceptible to reliability problems when used in long-lasting or safety-critical products, in sustained operation or under harsh operating conditions, such as in automotive or industrial electronics. Because endurance tests in the laboratory are very expensive, the reliability of ICs must be ensured as far as possible with the use of simulations. A wide range of failure mechanisms must be taken into account here.