Reliability assurance of application-specific microelectronic circuits

Abstract

An integrated-circuit reliability simulator has been developed. Model parameters for the reliability simulation are obtained through accelerated tests on specially designed test structures. The design of several test chips and associated experimental results are presented. Reliability simulations are described at the detailed circuit-design level using the SPICE circuit simulator or its derivatives as the key module. A computer-automated characterization system is necessary to extract parameter values for the new degradation models.<>