Design-for-Reliability Tools for Highlyintegrated System-on-Package Technology

With the dramatic advances made in Microsystems industry, System-on-a-Package (SOP) technology holds promise in terms of reduction in size, cost, and improved performance. To be able to achieve such benefits in an integrated system, it is necessary not to compromise the overall reliability of the system. Therefore, the SOP technology will require up-front system-level design-for-reliability approaches and appropriate reliability assessment methodologies to ensure the reliability of digital, optical, and RF functions as well as their interfaces. Design-for-reliability requires (i) Mechanics-based reliability prediction models for various failure mechanisms associated with Digital, Optical, and RF Functions, and their interfaces in the system (ii) Design optimization models for the selection of suitable materials and processing conditions, for reliability as well as functionality and (iii) System-level reliability models understanding the component and functional interaction. This presentation will focus on the reliability assessment of digital, optical, and RF functions in SOP-based microsystems [1]. Upfront physics-based design-for-reliability models for various functional failure mechanisms are presented to evaluate various design options and material selection even before the prototypes are made. Advanced modeling methodologies and algorithms to accommodate material length scale effects, due to enhanced system integration and miniaturization are presented. System-level mixed-signal reliability is discussed thorough system-level reliability metrics relating component level failure mechanisms to system-level signal integrity as well as statistical aspects.