Accelerating Electromigration Aging: Fast Failure Detection for Nanometer ICs

For practical testing and detection of electromigration (EM) induced failures in dual damascene copper interconnects, one critical issue is creating stressing conditions to induce the chip to fail exclusively under EM in a very short period of time so that EM sign-off and validation can be carried out efficiently. Existing acceleration techniques, which rely on increasing temperature and current densities beyond the known limits, also accelerate other reliability effects making it very difficult, if not impossible, to test EM in isolation. In this article, we propose novel EM wear-out acceleration techniques to address the aforementioned issue. First we show that multi-segment interconnects with reservoir and sink structures can be exploited to significantly speedup the EM wear-out process. Based on this observation, we propose three strategies to accelerate EM induced failure: reservoir-enhanced acceleration, sink-enhanced acceleration, and a hybrid method that combines both reservoir and sink structures. We then propose several configurable interconnect structures that exploit atomic reservoirs and sinks for accelerated EM testing. Such configurable interconnect structures are very flexible and can be used to achieve significant lifetime reductions at the cost of some routing resources. Using the proposed technique, EM testing can be carried out at nominal current densities, and at a much lower temperature compared to traditional testing methods. This is the most significant contribution of this work since, to our knowledge, this is the only method that allows EM testing to be performed in a controlled environment without the risk of invoking other reliability effects that are also accelerated by elevated temperature and current density. Simulation results show that, using the proposed method, we can reduce the EM lifetime of a chip from 10 years down to a few hours 10^5X acceleration under the 150C temperature limit, which is sufficient for practical EM testing of typical nanometer CMOS ICs

Introducing Research Methods and Skills in a Workshop Environment.

Yes`Research Seminar Series¿ is a 10-credit, Level M module offered to MSc/MEng students undertaking programmes in the areas of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Bradford. The module¿s aims are twofold: i) to disseminate stateoftheart information that could form the basis for future research programmes¿ and ii) to introduce the stages involved in the preparation and presentation of a research paper.Higher Education Academ

Impact and puncture resistant material protects parts from damage

Uniform sized, laminated panels protect delicate parts and equipment from damage during storage and transportation. The panels consist of sheets of steel foil bonded between sheets of elastic foam. They are lightweight, impact and puncture-resistant, and, when formed into an enclosure, provide a barrier against moisture and thermal shock

Empirical Calibration of a Least-Cost Conservation Reserve Program

Mechanism design models typically conclude by characterizing an optimal allocation schedule based on the principal's beliefs regarding agent value functions and the distribution of agent types. This article addresses the question of how a principal can develop these beliefs given a standard cross-sectional data set in which agents' input-output choices are observable, but their underlying heterogeneity is not. I employ the methodology to evaluate strategies for reducing the cost of a voluntary program that reduces cultivation on environmentally-sensitive farmland.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Benefits and challenges of applying outcome mapping in an R4D project

The Community-based Fish Culture in Seasonal Floodplains and Irrigation Systems (CBFC) project is a five year research project supported by the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF), with the aim of increasing productivity of seasonally occurring water bodies through aquaculture. The project has been implemented in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Mali and Vietnam, where technical and institutional options for community based aquaculture have been tested. The project began in 2005 and was completed in March 2010. There is an increasing demand for researchers to demonstrate the impact of the work within project time frames, yet development is a complex, non-linear process emerging from changes that traditional, managerial approaches to development fail to capture or to understand. Methods to address unanticipated change and increasingly important æsoftÆ outcomes, such as improved governance have not yet been widely tested or adopted. In response to this gap, this paper describes lessons learned during the pilot testing of Outcome Mapping as part of an action research process in Vietnam, and presents an abridged OM methodology for application at the community level.Research, Impact assessment, Livelihoods