Industry consensus approach to physics of failure in reliability prediction

Traditional reliability prediction methods are being confounded by current and near future semiconductor technologies, as gate feature sizes shrink below 100 nanometers (nm) causing the emergence of atomic level failure mechanisms and early wearout. These devices and their failure characteristics are rapidly changing as the semiconductor industry aggressively pursues scaling in a highly competitive marketplace. The Physics of Failure (PoF) approach to reliability has advantages for assessing these technologies. Industry groups are adapting PoF research results for use in predicting reliability for these technologies. This paper describes industry collaborative efforts in developing new reliability prediction approaches to meet future industry challenges.