Guest Editors' Introduction: Special Issue on Variability and Aging

Abstract

The articles in this special section focus on new technological innovationsin EDA design. The constant evolution of electronic systems has been fueled by the continuous and tremendous progress of silicon technology manufacturing. Since 1960, when the first MOS transistor was manufactured with dimensions around 50 cm, process technology has been constantly enhancing until the current 22-nm MOS technology. Every two years a new process generation roughly doubles the device density, following what is known as Moore's law. Besides, every new generation offers faster devices that consume less energy by operation. This has put in the hands of architects more powerful and energy-efficient building blocks on top of which they have designed more effective architectures with increasing capabilities. Silicon MOSFETs have been the workhorse devices for information technologies during all these last decades. However, these technology advances have to deal with important challenges coming from physical limitations of the underlying transistors, which are affected by severe manufacturing process parameters variability and aging caused by electrical degradation of materials due to the intense electrical stress during operation.