abstract: The scaling of transistors has numerous advantages such as increased memory density, less power consumption and better performance; but on the other hand, they also give rise to many reliability issues. One of the major reliability issue is the hot carrier injection and the effect it has on device degradation over time which causes serious circuit malfunctions. Hot carrier injection has been studied from early 1980's and a lot of research has been done on the various hot carrier injection mechanisms and how the devices get damaged due to this effect. However, most of the existing hot carrier degradation models do not consider the physics involved in the degradation process and they just calculate the change in threshold voltage for different stress voltages and time. Based on this, an analytical expression is formulated that predicts the device lifetime. This thesis starts by discussing various hot carrier injection mechanisms and the effects it has on the device. Studies have shown charges getting trapped in gate oxide and interface trap generation are two mechanisms for device degradation. How various device parameters get affected due to these traps is discussed here. The physics based models such as lucky hot electron model and substrate current model are presented and gives an idea how the gate current and substrate current can be related to hot carrier injection and density of traps created. Devices are stressed under various voltages and from the experimental data obtained, the density of trapped charges and interface traps are calculated using mid-gap technique. In this thesis, a simple analytical model based on substrate current is used to calculate the density of trapped charges in oxide and interface traps generated and it is a function of stress voltage and stress time. The model is verified against the data and the TCAD simulations. Finally, the analytical model is incorporated in a Verilog-A model and based on the surface potential method, the threshold voltage shift due to hot carrier stress is calculated. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Electrical Engineering 2017

Frontend and backend wearout mechanisms are major reliability concerns for modern microprocessors. In this research, a framework which contains modules for negative bias temperature instability (NBTI), positive bias temperature instability (PBTI), hot carrier injection (HCI), gate-oxide breakdown (GOBD), backend time-dependent dielectric breakdown (BTDDB), electromigration (EM), and stress-induced voiding (SIV) is proposed to analyze the impact of each wearout mechanism on state-of-art microprocessors and to accurately estimate microprocessor lifetimes due to each wearout mechanism. Taking into account the detailed thermal profiles, electrical stress profiles and a variety of use scenarios, composed of a fraction of time in operation, a fraction of time in standby, and a fraction of time when the system is off, this work provides insight into lifetime-limiting wearout mechanisms, along with the reliability-critical microprocessor functional units for a system. This enables circuit designers to know if their designs will achieve an adequate lifetime and further make any updates in the designs to enhance reliability prior to committing the designs to manufacture.

Avec la tendance continue vers la technologie nanométrique et l'augmentation des fonctions complexes intègres dans les électroniques systèmes embarqués, Assurant la compatibilité électromagnétique (CEM) des systèmes électroniques est un grand défi. CEM est devenu une cause majeure de redesign des Circuits intègres (CI). D’ailleurs, les performances des circuits pourraient être affectés par les mécanismes de dégradation tels que hot carrier injection (HCI), negative bias temperature instability (NBTI), gate oxide breakdown, qui sont accélérés par les conditions d'exploitation extrême (haute / basse température, surcharge électrique, le rayonnement). Ce vieillissement naturel peut donc affecter les performances CEM des circuits intégrés.Les travaux développés dans notre laboratoire vise à clarifier le lien entre les dégradations induites par le vieillissement et les dérives CEM, de développer les modèles de prédiction et de proposer des "insensibles au cours du temps" structures pour CEM protection, afin de fournir des méthodes et des guidelines aux concepteurs d'équipements et CI pour garantir la CEM au cours de durée de vie de leurs applications. Ce sujet de recherche est encore sous-exploré en tant que communautés de recherche sur la «fiabilité IC» et «compatibilité électromagnétique IC» n’a souvent pas de chevauchement.Ce manuscrit de thèse introduit une méthode pour quantifier l'effet du vieillissement sur les CEM des circuits intégrés par la mesure et la simulation. Le premier chapitre donne un aperçu du contexte général et le deuxième chapitre est dédié a l’état de l'art de CEM des circuits intégrés et de problèmes de fiabilité IC. Les résultats expérimentaux de circuits CEM évolution sont présentés dans le troisième chapitre. Ensuite, le quatrième chapitre est consacré à la caractérisation et la modélisation des mécanismes de dégradation du CI. Un EMR modèle qui inclut l'élément le vieillissement pour prédire la dérive du niveau CEM de notre puce de test après stress est proposé / With the continuous trend towards nanoscale technology and increased integration of complex electronic functions in embedded systems, ensuring the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) of electronic systems is a great challenge. EMC has become a major cause of IC redesign. Meanwhile, ICs performance could be affected by the degradation mechanisms such as hot carrier injection (HCI), negative bias temperature instability(NBTI), gate oxide breakdown, which are accelerated by the harsh operation conditions (high/low temperature, electrical overstress, radiation). This natural aging can thus affect EMC performances of ICs. The work developed in our laboratory aims at clarifying the link between ageing induced IC degradations and related EMC drifts, developing prediction models and proposing “time insensitive” EMC protection structures, in order to provide methods and guidelines to IC and equipment designers to ensure EMC during lifetime of their applications. This research topic is still under-explored as research communities on “IC reliability” and “IC electromagnetic compatibility” has often no overlap. The PhD manuscript introduced a methodology to quantify the effect of ageing on EMC of ICs by measurement and simulation. The first chapter gives an overview of the general context and the second chapter states the EMC of ICs state of the art and IC reliability issues. The experimental results of ICs EMC evolution are presented in the third chapter. Then, the fourth chapter is dedicated to the characterization and modeling IC degradation mechanism. An EMR model which includes the ageing element to predict our test chip’s EMC level drift after stress is proposed

Actuellement, les circuits numériques nécessitent d'être de plus en plus performants. Aussi, les produits doivent être conçus le plus rapidement possible afin de gagner les précieuses parts de marché. Les méthodes rapides de conception et l'utilisation de MPSoC ont permis de satisfaire à ces exigences, mais sans tenir compte précisément de l'impact du vieillissement des circuits sur la conception. Or les MPSoC utilisent les technologies de fabrication les plus récentes et sont de plus en plus soumis aux défaillances matérielles. De nos jours, les principaux mécanismes de défaillance observés dans les transistors des MPSoC sont le HCI et le NBTI. Des marges sont alors ajoutées pour que le circuit soit fonctionnel pendant son utilisation, en considérant le cas le plus défavorable pour chaque mécanisme. Ces marges deviennent de plus en plus importantes et diminuent les performances attendues. C'est pourquoi les futures méthodes de conception nécessitent de tenir compte des dégradations matérielles en fonction de l’utilisation du circuit. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons une méthode originale pour simuler le vieillissement des MPSoC à haut niveau d'abstraction. Cette méthode s'applique lors de la conception du système c.-à-d. entre l'étape de définition des spécifications et la mise en production. Un modèle empirique permet d'estimer les dégradations temporelles en fin de vie d'un circuit. Un exemple d'application est donné pour un processeur embarqué et les résultats pour un ensemble d'applications sont reportés. La solution proposée permet d'explorer différentes configurations d'une architecture MPSoC pour comparer le vieillissement. Aussi, l'application la plus sévère pour le vieillissement peut être identifiée. / Nowadays, more and more performance is expected from digital circuits. What’s more, the market requires fast conception methods, in order to propose the newest technology available. Fast conception methods and the utilization of MPSoC have enabled high performance and short time-to-market while taking little attention to aging. However, MPSoC are more and more prone to hardware failures that occur in transistors. Today, the prevailing failure mechanisms in MPSoC are HCI and NBTI. Margins are usually added on new products to avoid failures during execution, by considering worst case scenario for each mechanism. For the newest technology, margins are becoming more and more important and products performance is getting lower and lower. That’s why the conception needs to take into account hardware failures according to the execution of software. This thesis propose a new methodology to simulate aging at high level of abstraction, which can be applied to MPSoC. The method can be applied during product conception, between the specification phase and the production. An empirical model is used to estimate slack time at circuit's end of life. A use case is conducted on an embedded processor and degradation results are reported for a set of applications. The solution enables architecture exploration and MPSoC aging can thus be compared. The software with most severe impact on aging can also be determined.