Enabling Autonomous Computing: Technology Solutions That Anticipate and Avert Failure

Current and future compute require a solution to guarantee zero failures of the architecture throughout a systems useful life. Traditional technology solutions that guarantee requirements have become difficult as field use conditions have moved from an electrical “nominal” to “maximum”. This results in wear-out encroaching upon the product useful-life. This is undesirable, many manufacturers have looked for solutions to avoid premature failure [1]. The subject of this paper are the chip techniques that anticipate or react to failure, followed by enabling a repair solution. This paper describes how a known reliability mechanism, electromigration, is studied, qualified, and then implemented as a technology solution to substantially improve a systems useful life. The solution proposed is a new two terminal electrical fuse, known as the eFuse.