Reliability Enhancement of 14 nm HPC ASIC Using Al2O3 Thin Film Coated with Room-Temperature Atomic Layer Deposition

Abstract

In this research, a 14 nm high-performance computing application-specific integrated circuit was coated with a 5–20 nm Al2O3 thin film by atomic layer deposition in room-temperature conditions to study its performance in terms of reliability with different thicknesses. An open/short test, standby current measurement, interface input/output performance test, and phase-locked loops functional test were used to verify chip performance. Furthermore, an unbiased highly accelerated temperature and humidity stress test and a 72 h wear-out test were used to study the effects of the atomic layer deposition coating. The results showed that the coating thickness of 15 nm provided the best performance in the wear-out test, as well as the unbiased highly accelerated temperature humidity stress. This study demonstrates that room-temperature atomic layer deposition is a promising technique for enhancing the reliability of advanced node semiconductor chips.