Noise and transport reliability indicators for microelectronics devices

A noninvasive method of reliability prediction for PN junction microelectronic devices is presented. A set of relevant parameters called reliability indicators (RI´s) is derived from the noise and transport device characteristics. The following quantities are of importance: 1) the magnitude of the excess current in the forward direction at low injection level, 2) the ratio of noise spectral density to the thermal noise spectral density measured across the load resistance in forward and reverse direction and 3) the ratio of theoretical breakdown voltage to the soft breakdown voltage in the reverse direction. Experimental results illustrate applicability of this method