FaRBS: A new PoF based VLSI reliability prediction method

FaRBS (Failure Rate Based Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) is a new physics-of-failure based Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) circuit reliability prediction method. With multiple failure mechanisms inh erently modeled and analyzed, FaRBS will make reliability engineers´ life much easier by directly revealing each stress´s acceleration effect at system level, thus helping reliability engineers carry out system level VLSI reliability predictions and derating/uprating analyses. Based on Physics-of-Failure (PoF) models of intrinsic failure mechanisms, FaRBS takes a straightforward top-down, bottom-up approach to reduce both modeling and prediction complexity. Detailed application breakdown from the system level reveals bottom-level device´s operation profile. Devicelevel reliability characterization provides accurate operation-ba sed dynamic stress modeling by utilizing the physics-of-failure models. For each failure mechanism, the best-fit lifetime distribution is selected to provide the reliability prediction. With the bottom level device reliability prediction, the application-specific circuit and corresponding system reliability is further predicted by considering the system structure. To demonstrate FaRBS and verify its prediction capability, reliability predictions were performed on a microcontroller, DRAM and microprocessor. The predicted failure rates were compared with field data (from 2002 to 20 09) and demonstrate that the prediction agrees very well with the real failure rates.