MEMORY LSI RELIABILITY

An overview of memory LSI reliability is presented. As the device size is scaled down and memory capacity increases, reliability becomes an important issue in memory LSI's. This is due to more severe operating conditions and higher reliability requirements per bit. Reliability an d performance tradeoff is a key challenge. Detailed investigation of f ailure mechanisms is necessary for improving reliability without LSI p erformance degradation. Furthermore, a total reliability design method ology for the process, device, and circuit must be established for fut ure memory LSI's.