Reliability of electronic components and its limits

The development of large integrated circuits with small elements is subject not only to design limits, but also to other limits that are dictated by functional reliability. Technical aspects of these limits are connected with the level of accuracy of component production and its yield. The stability of the elements is affected by the surface reaction of the materials used, changing the properties of the small elements during fabrication even within tens to hundreds of seconds. Variations in the composition of the functional areas of semiconductors represent another cause of tolerance deviation, and for a large number of elements in the system these deviations add up. It is shown by several examples that the determination of component properties does not depend on technological tools only but also on the quality of these tools. This includes, for example, the time reproducibility of the whole production process including ´dead´ breaks between operations. Therefore, only a complete description of the processes and their analysis can assure acceptable reliability of components.