Circuit-aware device reliability criteria methodology

Meeting reliability requirements is an increasingly more difficult challenge with each generation of CMOS technology. The disconnection between conventional one-size-fits-all reliability specifications and the wide range of circuit applications might be a huge waste of resources. By taking into consideration circuit-level figures of merit, a novel methodology to establish device reliability criteria that reflects real-world operation of devices in circuits is proposed and demonstrated. This “circuit-aware” methodology makes a real step toward realizing the goal of application-aware reliability standards which do not require additional measurements. The beauty is its simplicity — a simple transformation to solve an important problem. The simplicity makes it attractive as a standard methodology.