Integrity and Reliability of Integrated CircuitS (IRIS)
Abstract
Integrated circuits (ICs) are core components of most electronic systems developed for the Department of Defense. However, the DoD consumes a very small percentage of the total IC production in the world. As a result of the globalization of the IC marketplace, much of the advanced IC production has moved to offshore foundries, and these parts make up the majority of ICs used in today's military systems. Without the ability to influence and regulate the off-shore fabrication of ICs, there is a risk that parts acquired for DoD systems may not meet stated specifications for performance and reliability. This risk increases considerably with the proliferation of counterfeit ICs in the marketplace, as well as the potential for the introduction of malicious circuits into a design. The Integrity and Reliability of Integrated CircuitS (IRIS) program developed techniques that will provide electronic system developers the ability to validate the function of digital, analog and mixed-signal ICs non-destructively, given limited data about the chip's detailed design specifications. These techniques included advanced imaging for identification of functional elements in deep sub-micrometer Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) circuits, as well as computational methods to deal with the extremely difficult problem of determining device connectivity. Finally, the IRIS program developed innovative methods to determine the reliability of an IC by testing a limited number of samples. The current understanding of IC aging mechanisms, including negative bias temperature instability (NBTI), hot carrier injection (HCI), time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) and electromigration (EM) was leveraged to develop unique diagnostic test techniques.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2016
- Source ID
- 83c36a94ba60da26d4a37ba00654ce14