Time-Dependent Degradation in Device Characteristics and Countermeasures by Design

Advancement of process technologies has significantly improved the performance of semiconductor devices and consequently of circuits. Device lifetime, on the other hand, has been unavoidably compromised through the introductions of new materials, new process technologies, etc. Mitigating measures against transient degradation of circuit performance are now what all circuit designers should know. In this chapter, techniques to monitor device degradation are introduced. By periodic monitoring, functional failures induced after fabrication can be detected. Practical circuit designs that mitigate, predict, diagnose, and recover from faults in the running systems are proposed to achieve an ultimate design goal of realizing dependable VLSIs.

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