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Reliability and Failures

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Wafer-Level Integrated Systems

Part of the book series: The Kluwer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science ((SECS,volume 70))

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Abstract

The design of reliable systems has been a major topic of systems research and development. Though a complex topic, several general principles of analysis and modeling have been developed (e.g. [1,2]). WSI provides reconfiguration or other repair strategies to avoid faulty components, assuming that the faults are known. The emphasis has been on initial yield of functional circuitry, with less attention of achieving tolerance for in-service faults. However, as wafer-level systems evolve, maintenance based on replacing faulty IC’s with functional IC’s becomes more difficult and expensive. In this sense, achieving reliable systems (perhaps beyond the reliability of conventional IC-based components) is potentially as important to the success of wafer-level system modules as achieving high initial yields. This chapter reviews general measures of reliability and then discusses several of the failure mechanisms seen in silicon VLSI. Studies of the impact of scaling devices to smaller sizes on reliability are also reviewed, suggesting that the reliability issue will become more prominent as device dimensions shrink.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. AT&T Bell Laboratories, USA

    Stuart K. Tewksbury

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  1. Stuart K. Tewksbury
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© 1989 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Tewksbury, S.K. (1989). Reliability and Failures. In: Wafer-Level Integrated Systems. The Kluwer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science, vol 70. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1625-1_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1625-1_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-8898-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-1625-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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