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Mission profiles for semiconductor applications are getting more and more challenging regarding electrical and thermomechanical robustness of metallization stacks. Effects, especially in thick metals, were investigated over the last years to find solutions for an improvement regarding both potential stressors. Some elements of a metallization were designed, investigated and simulated [1, 2, 3, 4 5]. But for an implementation in products it is necessary to develop a complete metallization stack. Therefore a support for layout tools is indispensable. This paper will explain the principles of a highly robust AlCu-metallization stack, the physics and failure mechanisms which are considered for some elements of such a metal stack and the design solution.

In this paper we present a tool based approach for an aging-aware design method. Extending the gm /I D sizing method by operating point-dependent degradation caused by BTI and HCD enables an innovative design flow. This design flow considers performance characteristics for a fresh circuit and also those of a degraded circuit at design time. Once the degradation from a single transistor is computed, the GMID-Tool does not need any further SPICE or aging simulation. The impact of the change in design methodology is shown for a typical differential amplifier structure.

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