Abstract
Reliability problems are beginning to plague high-integration devices. It is not just a factor of shrinking device geometries; the exponential growth in on-chip memory and logic capacity is taking its toll. Reliability issues fall into two broad categories: old problems and new. Among the old problems that are coming back to haunt the industry are soft errors, caused by alpha particles and neutron bombardment, and electromigration, caused by increasing current density in ever thinner lines. This article looks at the causes of reliability problems and measures being taken to guard against them, such as error correcting codes for soft errors and the control of gate sizing, wire width and placement and routing for electromigration. New processes are also addressed, including the introduction of new materials, such as copper metallisation and high- and low-k dielectric materials.
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