BACKGROUND

As technology reaches scaling limits, end-of-life (EOL) failures due to aging exponentially increase. Performance improvements by pushing operating voltage higher further compounds EOL failures. Leveraging reliability models derived from standalone discrete transistor to predict circuit and/or product failures is a very complex issue and not well understood. Any irregularities in device-level reliability models may have profound risks on circuits and/or products EOL failure. Reasonable guard-band are taxed to mitigate product failure risk before guaranteed lifetime without compromising performance.

