Parametric reliability test: wafer surface contamination study

Reliability tests are usually labor and time intensive that makes it difficult to provide reliability assessments in a cost effective and timely manner. On the other hand, the test should be sufficiently sensitive to satisfy experimental requirements. In order to address these concerns, we developed a completely automated parametric end-of-line reliability test, which is intended to be applicable with gate oxides in the range of 2.0- 5.0 nm. In this study on the effect of carbon contamination on device electrical properties, the results of the automated gate oxide reliability test were correlated to the transistor performance and physical analysis data.