Reliability assessment through defect based testing

In this paper it is shown that a small linear variation of poly critical dimensions, effective channel length, and transistor threshold voltage caused by non-controlled process variations will result in an exponential variation in the of state conductivity of a transistor. For the first time, it is shown, that the application of the percolation theory makes it possible to integrate the contribution of short channel MOSFET's to the standby current of deep-sub-micron CMOS microprocessors taking into consideration the above process variations. It is proved that a Fault model, which consists of an equivalent effective MOSFET with inherent defects, can represent a CMOS VLSI circuit in standby mode. The model permits the use of standby current versus voltage test results for screening, built-in reliability and the process monitoring. The viability of this model is examined on 32-bit 0.25 /spl mu/m CMOS microprocessors. Results obtained on the product line confirm the model and show a strong correlation between rejected devices and infant mortality failures.