Reliability-Aware Circuit Design Methodology for Beyond-5G Communication Systems

This paper focuses on efficient reliability analysis methodologies applicable for beyond-5G communication systems demonstrated on prospective terahertz (THz) technologies. Recently, a lot of the research interests have grown on optoelectronic integration which requires simultaneous management of electronic and optical modules. These technologies are evolving very rapidly, providing higher complexity, thereby increasing their susceptibility to stress environments (i.e., mutual self-heating) and finally requiring both robustness assessment and lifetime prediction under different operating conditions. Consequently, long-time reliability is a major issue. Extensive reliability assessment needs novel design methodologies that can provide reliability-aware optimization at the design level. This review discusses an extensive physics-based methodology for reliability prediction and analysis of degradation mechanisms in integrated-circuit technologies. Circuit-level design and optimization methodologies are illustrated by taking into account reliability-aware design techniques. Application examples and results are presented for an InP DHBT process, a viable technological solution for beyond-5G and THz applications.