Reliability Enhancement of 14 nm HPC ASIC Using Al2O3 Thin Film Coated with Room-Temperature Atomic Layer Deposition

Abstract

In this research, a 14 nm high-performance computing application-specific integrated circuit was coated with a 5–20 nm Al2O3 thin film by atomic layer deposition in room-temperature conditions to study its performance in terms of reliability with different thicknesses. An open/short test, standby current measurement, interface input/output performance test, and phase-locked loops functional test were used to verify chip performance. Furthermore, an unbiased highly accelerated temperature and humidity stress test and a 72 h wear-out test were used to study the effects of the atomic layer deposition coating. The results showed that the coating thickness of 15 nm provided the best performance in the wear-out test, as well as the unbiased highly accelerated temperature humidity stress. This study demonstrates that room-temperature atomic layer deposition is a promising technique for enhancing the reliability of advanced node semiconductor chips.

Technologies of Coatings and Surface Hardening: Industrial Applications

“…The product's operational life can be improved via introduced innovations in the coating and surface layer structure deposed to such materials as high-speed tool steel [16], Al 2 O 3 + TiC ceramic [17,18], Si and hard alloy substrate [19][20][21][22][23][24][25], plastic substrate [26]. The innovative multilayer coatings demonstrate the destruction of the coating from the contact load passing through one layer and developing along the interface between the layers, significantly increasing the product's durability [19][20][21][22][23][24][25].…”

“…Some of the coatings exhibit a self-healing effect under mechanical and thermal loads-with reaching a contact temperature of 800-1000 • C, some of the coating components may oxidize and form amorphous phases that can provide superlubricity in the processing zone and increase the operational life of the cutting tool [16,21,23]. Thin oxide films of a few nanometers effectively hamper moisture and protect microelectronics from mechanical and thermal loads [26]. The quality of the surface where the coating is supposed to be deposed plays a critical role in the product's durability [17] when special measures can reduce the adhesion of the workpiece material and favor the descent of material flow on the tool face [24].…”

“…Properties including high-temperature and triboproperties of the advanced multi- [19][20][21][22][23][24][25] and mono-layer [16,17], nanocomposite [23,24], nanostructured [18], and nanothin coatings [26];…”

“…Tool surface conditions and micro-texturing on machining performance of hardened steel [17] and heat-resistant alloy [24], correspondingly; • Self-healing adaptive coatings in milling titanium alloys [23], protective coatings for microelectronic needs [26], diagnostics of the coating deposition process [27];…”

“…Coating technologies such as physical vapor deposition (PVD) [17,23,24,27], including a radio frequency magnetron sputtering [16], high-power impulse magnetron sputtering [18], a closed-field unbalanced magnetron sputtering [19,20], filtered cathodic vacuum arc deposition [21,22,25], as well as atomic layer deposition [26]; • Full-scale tests in conditions close to industrial ones in milling hardened steel 100CrMn6 [17] and titanium alloys [23], turning steel 1045 [22], nickel-chromium alloy [21,25], and ironnickel alloy [24], annealing tests [19,20], open/short tests for electronic components [26]; • Development of a mathematical basis for future research [23,24].…”