On July 1st, Toshiba Corporation's Semiconductor Company and Storage Products Company consolidated to form Semiconductor & Storage Products Company.This page describes reliability information of semiconductor products.

Reliability Concept

[As of April, 2011]

Designing Against External Stress

To increase the reliability of a semiconductor product, the ability of the product to withstand external stress (i.e., the strength of the product) must be improved, and failure factors must be analyzed and countermeasures must be taken.
The junction surfaces of semiconductor products are extremely sensitive. Reliability can be greatly affected by the manufacturing process and integrated circuit layout as well as the wiring for electrical connections with external devices. Thus, semiconductor design, that is the design of processes, circuits and packages, is very important.
During mass production, manufacturing processes are subject to strict process QC and screening to improve reliability. Various reliability tests and field result analyses are conducted to identify the weak points of the product. This information is then used to make improvements and take reoccurrence preventive measures.
Due to the rapid progress in and frequent use of new technology in semiconductor manufacturing, reliability is improved by physical failure analysis methods.
Failure physics is not a new idea. The concept is based on the idea that failure occurs when certain energies are applied to the product as a result of external stress, such as those related to operating and environmental conditions. The method involves the identification of failure type and failure mechanism by physical and chemical analyses. This information is then fed back to the design process and manufacturing line, and the relationship with product life is subsequently identified and the failure rate and reliability are estimated.
The repeated cycle of design, manufacture, evaluation, analysis and corrective action allows the company to respond to harsh market demands and improve reliability. The details are explained in the Appendix, "Mathematics of Reliability."