ABSTRACT
Semiconductor technology involves continued scaling of semiconductor processes to the deep sub-micron and nanometer levels according to Moore’s law, as well as the addition of new and complex materials and process modules. Aggressive scaling entails numerous challenges involving power dissipation, variability, reliability, yield, and manufacturing. Often, the scaling of a technology is performed without proportionately reducing the power supply voltage to enable higher performance. Such an approach presents great challenges to device engineers, reliability engineers, and process integration engineers. As a result, trade-offs are usually required among reliability, design, and process development. The chapter highlights these numerous challenges in technology scaling for transistors and interconnects with special emphasis on the key reliability issues and the different wear-out mechanisms. The reliability of each new process module and how it interacts with other modules will be critical to the final reliability of the entire process. As the technology becomes more complex and aggressively scaled, reliability becomes critical as the technology is pushed to the limits to squeeze out every ounce of performance. Since generic technology reliability specifications can often be limiting and overly punitive, appropriate product reliability models are required to fully enable designs without compromising reliability.
