United States

For the first time, a reliability study on degradation of InGaAs/GaAs nano-ridge p-i-n diodes monolithically integrated on Si by nano-ridge engineering (NRE) is reported. Wafer-level constant current stress in forward bias shows a gradual power law aging of both forward and dark current. Current crowding and Joule heating near the p-contact are responsible for the degradation in forward bias region. Indications of defect formation and Ti diffusion at the metal/GaAs interface are witnessed. The electrical stress-induced leakage current builds up at reverse bias region, pointing to the degradation of crystal quality. A sintering process lowers the p-contact resistance and improves electrical stability. The high aspect-ratio of the trenches leads to effective threading dislocation trapping: no dislocations have been observed to penetrate the active region during the 5000s stress time. This early work sheds light on realizing electrically robust GaAs diodes on Si and reliable monolithic lasers.

IRPS 2022 Main Conference 

Wafer-Level Aging of InGaAs/GaAs Nano-Ridge p-i-n Diodes Monolithically Integrated on Silicon

stress-induced degradation

nano-ridge engineering

monolithic integration

#### Welcome to the 62nd IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS)! 
**The 2024 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS) was held in Dallas, Texas from April 14 to 18, 2024.** 

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Please save the zip file locally and click the "start.pdf" to view the file. 
 
**IRPS 2024 General Chair Welcome Message**

On behalf of the Management Committee of the IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS) and the IRPS Board of Directors, it gives me great pleasure to extend a warm welcome to all who are planning to attend the IRPS 2024, scheduled to take place from April 14-18, 2024, in Dallas, TX. 
Over its 62-year history, IRPS has solidified its position as the premiere conference for engineers and scientists to present new and original work in the field of microelectronics reliability. Drawing participants from the United States, Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world, IRPS aims to deepen our understanding of reliability of semiconductor devices, integrated circuits, and microelectronic assemblies through an improved understanding of both the physics of failure as well as the application environment. IRPS offers diverse opportunities for attendees to enhance their knowledge and understanding of all aspects of microelectronics reliability. It is also an outstanding chance to meet and network with reliability colleagues from around the world.

The IRPS 2024 technical activities will begin with two days of a total of twenty tutorial sessions covering a broad spectrum of emerging reliability topics beyond CMOS device, circuit and system reliability. These sessions are devoted to both newcomers as well as experts. Three reliability Year in Review (YIR) talks focusing on neuromorphic computing, dielectric breakdown in leading edge devices, and GaN technology will be provided on Monday after the tutorials.

The IRPS 2024 technical program will feature four distinguished keynote talks in the plenary sessions delivered by Prof. Shinichi Takagi from The University of Tokyo and Dr. Su Jin Ahn from Samsung on Tuesday, Dr. Rajeev Malik from IBM on Wednesday, and Dr. Sameer Pendharkar from Texas Instruments on Thursday. The technical program, organized into three parallel tracks, consists of contributed and seventeen invited papers from leaders in industry and academia. Additionally, two invited talks by recipients of paper awards from our sister conferences, European Symposium on Reliability of Electron Device Failure Physics and Analysis (ESREF) 2023 and the International Integrated Reliability Workshop (IIRW) 2023, will be given in the technical program. 

Tuesday evening will host ten workshops, offering an opportunity for in-depth, face-to-face discussions on emerging reliability challenges, including the three IRPS 2024 focus topics. A poster session will be held in the Austin Ranch outside the symposium building on Wednesday evening. Both events are sure to be lively. The IRPS 2024 and the International ESD Workshop (IEW) will be co-hosted with IEW registrants participating in both IRPS and IEW programs.

The IRPS 2024 will adopt a hybrid conference style, allowing virtual access to live oral presentations hosted by the Underline. Real-time streaming of all technical events (excluding Workshops and Posters) will be available in the US Central Timezone, providing virtual attendees with Q&A opportunities. For those virtual attendees who cannot watch the live presentations, the material will be available on demand to all attendees after the symposium. All authors will be presenting in person.

Finally, I would like to extend my extreme gratitude to our patrons, exhibitors, and all participants for their invaluable support, which makes IRPS successful. 

Please enjoy the IRPS 2024!

Koji Eriguchi, General Chair 
of 2024 IRPS Management Committee
 
**About IRPS** 
The IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS) is the premiere conference for engineers and scientists to present new and original work in the area of microelectronics reliability. Drawing participants from the United States, Europe, Asia, and all parts of the world, IRPS seeks to understand the reliability of semiconductor devices, integrated circuits, and microelectronic assemblies through an improved understanding of both the physics of failure as well as the application environment. IRPS provides numerous opportunities for attendees to increase their knowledge and understanding of all aspects of microelectronics reliability, and to meet and network with reliability colleagues from around the world.

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IRPS 2024 Main Conference

The IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS) is the premiere conference for engineers and scientists to present new and original work in the area of microelectronics reliability. IRPS seeks to understand the reliability of semiconductor devices, integrated circuits, and microelectronic assemblies through an improved understanding of both the physics of failure as well as the application environment. 

technical paper

#### Welcome to the 60th IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS)!

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**General Chair Welcome Message**

Welcome to IRPS 2022! When the IRPS Management Committee began making plans for Dallas, we recognized the strong desire by the reliability physics community to return to a face-to-face symposium that we last had in Monterey in 2019. But as time progressed, we recognized that travel restrictions were not being lifted as rapidly as we anticipated. Rather than leave out those of you who could not attend in person, we adopted a hybrid format allowing for both remote attendance and remote presentations. This is a first for IRPS and I am confident it will be a success for all.

With this new hybrid format, the symposium will return to the original five-day format with Tutorials and Year in Review on the first two days. The Technical Program, Keynote Talks, Workshops and Poster session will be held on the following three days. All of these (except Workshops and Posters) will be available via real-time streaming in the US Central Time zone with virtual attendees having Q&A access to the presenters. For those virtual attendees who cannot watch the live presentations, the material will be available on demand to all attendees for a month after the symposium with the ability to communicate with the authors.

In 2020, we were planning on co-hosting the International ESD Workshop (IEW) ESD workshop when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. For 2022, IEW will be seamlessly embedded into the IRPS Program and will sponsor three tutorials, an invited talk, two technical sessions and two evening workshops focused on ESD and latch-up. And we continue our
collaboration with our sister conference, European Symposium on Reliability of Electron Devices Failure Physics and Analysis (ESREF) by hosting their Best Paper and the International Integrated Reliability Workshop (IIRW) by hosting their Best Student Paper.

Our primary objective is to maintain the symposium’s leadership role in the reliability physics of microelectronic devices by attracting leading researchers to present their work and providing attendees the best place to access this information. With all the buzz in the media about whether Moore’s Law has hit its limit, IRPS has been promoting expertise developed in silicon-based reliability over the past sixty years and expanding into new material areas. This year, eight of the technical sessions are devoted to reliability in topics outside of traditional silicon, including wide bandgap GaN/SiC, emerging memory and neuromorphic computing. I hope our ability to draw these communities together will accelerate the cross-fertilization of ideas. 

The Technical Program consists of four keynote speakers, twenty-three invited speakers and eighty-seven oral presentations organized in thirty technical sessions on eighteen reliability topics. Over two evenings, there will be ten Workshops and sixty-six Poster presentations that are designed to allow in person attendees and experts to interact
with one another. With eighteen tutorials covering topics ranging from fundamental transistor and memory reliability all the way up to automotive and complex system-level reliability, this year’s symposium provides an excellent learning opportunity for engineers and scientists new to reliability as well as experienced individuals wanting to explore new
areas. The Year in Review, which serves as a summary of research in the past year, will cover 3D packaging, emerging memory and aging aware circuit designs.

Finally, I would like to express my extreme gratitude to our patrons and exhibitors, whose support makes IRPS possible.
And to all of you, our in person and virtual attendees, for supporting this symposium for sixty years!

**Charles W. Slayman, General Chair** 
**of 2022 IRPS Management Committee**
 
**About IRPS**

The IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS) is the premiere conference for engineers and scientists to present new and original work in the area of microelectronics reliability. Drawing participants from the United States, Europe, Asia, and all parts of the world, IRPS seeks to understand the reliability of semiconductor devices, integrated circuits, and microelectronic assemblies through an improved understanding of both the physics of failure as well as the application environment. IRPS provides numerous opportunities for attendees to increase their knowledge and understanding of all aspects of microelectronics reliability, and to meet and network with reliability colleagues from around the world.

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IRPS provides numerous opportunities for attendees to increase their knowledge and understanding of all aspects of microelectronics reliability. It is also an outstanding chance to meet and network with reliability colleagues from around the world.

With the steep expansion of the n-type 4H-SiC power metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) market space, gate oxide reliability is gaining more and more attention. Although there exist several reports dealing with the bias temperature instability (BTI) under both positive and negative gate biases, gate oxide lifetime evaluations predominantly focus on positive gate bias time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) stresses for n-channel SiC MOSFETs. In this work we address that gap. From the negative gate bias TDDB data measured at 175 °C and at a gate oxide electric field of about 4 MV/cm, an intrinsic lifetime of 1E8 hours has been predicted, which closely matches with the results obtained from similar devices under positive gate stress. Also, in this work the correlation between failure location in a MOSFET unit cell and the failure signatures during TDDB stress have been established, and an explanation from a device physics standpoint has been provided. The identification of the failure location in the unit cell from in-situ gate leakage data without the need of physical failure analysis can turn out to be key during the early phase of a new process development activity.  

Negative Gate Bias TDDB evaluation of n-Channel SiC Vertical Power MOSFETs

A high rate of early failures in gate oxide is one of the most serious concerns regarding the reliability of silicon carbide metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors.  Anintensive screening test using high-voltage gate stress is key to reducing this rate.  However, a threshold-voltage (VTH) shift is a frequent side effect, and the degraded chips need to be eliminated. We propose a screening procedure to detect adverse degradation with improved accuracy.  We first analyzed the VTH hysteresis, which deteriorates the measurement accuracy of VTH shifts and found that its wide variation is due to several causes.  We thus investigated multiple consecutive VTH measurements to isolate the hysteretic component from data and confirmed that our procedure is highly useful in detecting the adverse VTH shift.  In particular, it can identify a negative VTH shift hidden by the hysteresis.  This procedure is advantageous for negative-voltage screening in which small gate leakage can alter its VTH.

Accurate screening of defective oxide on SiC using consecutive multiple threshold-voltage measurements

The terrestrial Neutron failure rate of SiC JFETs and JFET based Cascode FETs are investigated for the first time.  The contributions of the co-packaged low voltage Si MOSFETs within the Cascode FETs were found to be insignificant in the overall FIT of the high-voltage switches.  Meanwhile, the SiC JFET and resulting Cascode FETs were found to be comparable with the previously reported “Universal” behavior of SiC unipolar devices when analyzed as FIT/cm2 versus applied voltage when normalized to device breakdown voltage.  These results suggest that, due to their superior specific on-resistance (RDS,On x Active Area), SiC JFETs and Cascode FETs will offer lower terrestrial FIT for a given on-resistance. 

Investigation of Terrestrial Neutron Induced Failure Rates in Silicon Carbide JFET Based Cascode FETs

We perform a detailed assessment of the electromigration performance of Co interconnects. Package level EM measurements were performed during &gt;11 months. Our estimate of the EM activation energy is ~1.4 eV which is, within error bar, consistent with earlier reported numbers. Our current exponent estimate suggests that void growth is the dominant contributor to Co EM. Through failure analysis, we associate void growth occurring through grain boundaries and at the barrier/metal interfaces. An activation energy assessment using low frequency noise measurements suggest a stronger contribution from this latter interface. Finally, we make a first estimation of an effective D0Z* for Co of ~1.72×10-10
which is two orders of magnitude lower than for Cu.

Assessment of critical Co electromigration parameters

We characterize the redundancy effect on EM failure time in power grid networks and propose a flow to leverage the benefit of the redundancy effect on EDA tools. Experimental results fit Monte-Carlo simulation based on a parallel model incorporating time-dependent stress loading. Ring oscillator frequency degradation and clock tree time delay are also evaluated on simplified power mesh networks as EM voids occur. A simple and practical EM check algorithm for EDA tools that takes the benefit of the redundancy effect on power grid networks into account is proposed. 

Redundancy Effect on Electromigration Failure Time in Power Grid Networks

For high voltage application, dielectric reliability was investigated on multi-layer inter-level interconnects, focusing on conduction mechanism and geometry effect.  At Vramp (voltage-ramp-to-breakdown) test, Vbd is found to be 4-5% lower with positive bias at bottom metal, which is due to polarity-dependent conduction mechanism.  In addition, metal density affects the lifetime of inter-level TDDB (time-dependent dielectric breakdown) with Poisson area scaling.  Based on our study, we suggest a guideline for additional reliability margin by bias polarity restriction and further layout design optimization.

Polarity Dependence and Metal Density Impact on Multi-Layer Inter-Level TDDB for High Voltage Application

Reliability analysis on Ge Electro-Absorption Modulators suggest that different physical mechanisms are involved in the dark current degradation during electrical stress. An “incubation time” followed by a power-law dependent dark current increase suggests the filling of pre-existing defects and the creation of traps at the Ge/Si and Ge/Ox interface. Even though the dark current degrades during reliability testing, actual failures are not expected to happen at nominal operation conditions and times. Finally, performance evaluation after more than 4000h of electrical stress, reveals no degradation of the electro-optical parameters. 

Degradation mechanisms in Germanium Electro-Absorption Modulators

A novel methodology for electromigration (EM) failure assessment in power/ground nets of integrated circuits, which is based on analysis of IR drop degradation, has been enhanced by considering non-uniform temperature distribution in interconnects. Temperature gradient along an interconnect tree can affect void nucleation due to the divergency of atomic flux, as well as due to development of thermal stress. Compact models for resistance increase of voided metal have been developed, using results of FEM simulations of voiding kinetics in via-metal structures. The simulation approach has been validated using measurements of node voltages in a specially designed test power grid. Increase of anode-cathode voltage drop above a threshold value was adopted as a failure criterion determining time-to-failure (TTF) of the grid and mean-time-to-failure (MTTF) was obtained, assuming random distributions of the critical stress and atomic diffusivity. In the studied cases of temperature distributions, a good agreement of simulated and measured TTF distributions has been obtained.

Novel methodology for temperature-aware electromigration assessment in on-chip power grid: simulations and experimental validation

Understanding the Reliability of Ferroelectric Tunnel Junction Operations using an Advanced Small-Signal Model

The present work aims at investigating how the BGA solder fatigue life in thermal cycling is affected by prior isothermal aging. The Weibull distributions of SAC305 assemblies are considered through failure analysis and microstructural investigations. The main metallurgical effect of isothermal aging observed on solder joints is a strong coalescence of precipitates. The fatigue life was slightly lowered by an extended aging at 100°C while exposure at 150°C proved to increase it. Tin recrystallization and strain-enhanced precipitate coarsening led to intergranular cracking in the solder joints, which was the main failure mode. However, cracking in the PCB laminate was also noticed and mainly present in failed specimens that were previously aged at 150°C. The prior degradation of the board material near its glass transition temperature and the lower stress in the solder joints due to laminate cracking were proposed to explain the unexpected lifetime extension. 

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Negative Gate Bias TDDB evaluation of n-Channel SiC Vertical Power MOSFETs

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