Conquering Process Variability: A Key Enabler for Profitable Manufacturing in Advanced Technology Nodes

Achieving the required time to market with economically acceptable yield levels and maintaining them in volume production has become a very challenging task in the most advanced technology nodes. One of the primary reasons is the relative increase in process variability in each generation. This paper will describe a comprehensive study of the main sources of variability and their effects on active devices, interconnect and ultimately product performance and yield. We will present benchmarking of yield loss components for different product classes. We will then propose several approaches for variability reduction in the design, yield ramp and volume manufacturing phases.