A built-in BTI monitor for long-term data collection in IBM microprocessors

Author

Pong-Fei Lu ; Jenkins, Keith A.

Author_Institution

IBM T.J. Watson Res. Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, USA

fYear

2013

fDate

14-18 April 2013

Abstract

A circuit for long-term measurement of bias temperature instability (BTI) degradation is described. It is an entirely on-chip measurement circuit, which reports measurements periodically with a digital output. Implemented on IBM´s z196 Enterprise systems, it can be used to monitor long-term degradation under real-use conditions. Over 500 days worth of ring oscillator degradation data from customer systems are presented. The importance of using a reference oscillator to measure performance degradation in the field, where the supply voltage and temperature can vary dynamically, is shown.

Keywords

measurement systems; microprocessor chips; negative bias temperature instability; oscillators; IBM microprocessors; IBM z196 enterprise systems; bias temperature instability degradation; built-in BTI monitor; customer systems; long-term data collection; long-term measurement; on-chip measurement circuit; real-use conditions; reference oscillator; ring oscillator degradation data; Degradation; Frequency measurement; Monitoring; Ring oscillators; Temperature measurement; Time measurement; Voltage measurement; bias-temperature instability; long-term measurement; on-chip measurement; ring oscillator Introduction;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS), 2013 IEEE International

Conference_Location

Anaheim, CA

ISSN

1541-7026

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-0112-8

Electronic_ISBN

1541-7026

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IRPS.2013.6532003

Filename

6532003