Process Enabler and Design Opportunities for Fully Safeguarding Against the Massive Presence of Reliability Defects

We have simultaneously addressed two major challenges in semiconductor reliability engineering. One is how to characterize a genetically defective component with a massive presence of reliability defects. The other is how to passivate all the defects for measuring up to our ultimate goal of zero failures in the field. This paper highlights a decade-long case study and follow-up on many millions of IC (integrated circuit) shipments. Our insightful characterizations of defects have enabled the process maturation and the discovery of a novel design-for-reliability (DfR). Correspondingly, the mitigating measures have suppressed defects by several orders of magnitude and resulted in zero returns from a broad range of customers. Furthermore, our collective approach promises the narrative of our Road to Zero Defects, where the sky is the limit.