IRW 2005 KEYNOTE ADDRESS (Home)

Status and Future Trends in Technology Reliability:

Balancing Technical Challenges and Affordability

 

Erwin Hammerl

Director of Reliability Methodology at Infineon Technologies

 

The ever increasing complexity and performance of semiconductor products in combination with continuous feature size scaling imposes many new reliability challenges (reliability per transistor or per length of interconnect; increasing power and electrical fields, etc).  In addition substantial technology changes for the upcoming technology nodes like introduction of new materials, processes, devices and packaging techniques require many additional reliability engineering efforts.  Cost of technology development and qualification as well as time to market will be more challenging.  Consumer, industrial and automotive applications (‘zero defects’) with diverging reliability requirements (environmental parameters, accepted failure rates, required life times) are all under cost constraints.  Cost optimization requires more accurate lifetime models and new reliability methods, e.g. design for reliability.

                                                                                                                                         

In this presentation the most critical current and future reliability topics will be highlighted.  Levers for reliability cost limitation in technology development, for fast time to market, as well as for cost efficient reliability monitoring in manufacturing will be discussed.