Reliability Considerations for the Qualification of Leading Edge CMOS Technologies

CMOS device reliability is a key ingredient for the market introduction of leading edge semiconductor technologies. Performance enhancement and reliability balance is critical for the optimization of competitive CMOS solutions for advanced technology nodes. To fully leverage performance enhancement elements the device reliability impact needs to fully characterized on the CMOS circuits like SRAM, ring-oscillators and RF Power Amplifiers. A critical review of the reliability methods used for RF device characterization as well as the development of guidelines and qualification methodologies necessary for the introduction of Silicon based RF technologies to market is presented here. The implications and requirements to the reliability of RF applications will be considered and validated at the discrete device as well as for typical circuit applications. The selection of suitable stress/test methodologies as well as the selection of meaningful targets will be discussed.