Effects of Failures on Yield, Integration, Cost and Reliability of Large Scale Integrated Semiconductor Memories. — A Tutorial Review

Abstract

In the production of large scale integrated semiconductor circuits, and especially of semiconductor memories with high storage capacity, the deviations from the intended ideal state, i.e. the failures, are very important, as their nature and concentration determine the number of individual devices (transistors) and individual functions (storage elements) that can be combined as an integrated circuit (IC) on a single monocristalline substrate. The special dependences are characterized by the facts that with increasing integration the relation between perfect integrated circuits (i.e. without failures) and the total number of produced integrated circuits decreases, and, furthermore, that the achieved quality standard and the failure level determine the scale of integration at which the minimum cost can be achieved. Finally, the quality standard of the factory determines the reliability in a high degree, i.e. the frequency with which the integrated circuits installed in the electronic equipment fail in operation.