| This dissertation presents a new relationship between semiconductor ‘chip’ yield and reliability at the chip level. Semiconductor chip yield although previously investigated has become a critical area of concern due to the continuous shrinkage of feature size while chip area continues to increase. Although total manufacturing yield and its relationship to ‘infant mortality’ failures has been established, there is yet not established correlation between chip yield and integrated circuit (IC) reliability. In this thesis, we have developed Monte Carlo techniques to analyze yield, burn-in reliability, and IC reliability. From a failure time distribution function, yield correlation with reliability has been established. The approach also correlates yield to burn-in reliability. It is also shown that the calculated mean time to failure (MTTF) is a function of feature size, critical defect diameter, and the defect cluster parameter, which measure the effect of clustering of small defects on yield and reliability. |
