Reliability issues for nano-scale CMOS dielectrics

Continuous scaling, necessary for enhanced performance and cost reduction, has pushed existing CMOS materials much closer to their intrinsic reliability limits, forcing reliability engineers to get a better understanding of circuit failure. This requires that designers will have to be very careful with phenomena such as high current densities or voltage overshoots. In addition to the reliability issues, new materials as metal gates and high-k gate dielectrics have been integrated. These new materials require that we gain understanding of the reliability physics related to these new materials (such as Vt instability, gate oxide breakdown) and that we develop high confidence-level design rules.