FPGA/PLD Reliability: High Speeds and Advanced Processes

[Richard B. Katz]

Hi,

I am interested in the reliability of modern FPGA/PLD hardware and
am surveying groups of users for their experience along with
studying reliability data provided by various manufacturers. So,
two basic questions:

1. Are there reliability issues for modern devices with the
higher clock speeds that we are using today? I shall set,
for the sake of discussion, an artificial boundary of 100 MHz
clock frequency for the dividing line between high and not
high speed.

2. Are there handling/assembly/application issues for modern
devices as compared to say devices from 5 years ago? That
is, are there observed changes in sensitivity to conditions
such as ESD, input voltage excursions, transients on the
power supplies, etc.

Please categorize the application environment in terms of
commercial, industrial, or mil/aerospace and specify clock
frequency. If possible, quantities of devices might be helpful for
evaluating trends.

Posts to the newsgroup are of course fine. If you wish to be
anonymous, please demunge and use the e-mail address in the header.

Thanks,

Richard B. Katz
NASA

 

[Allan Herriman]

On 10 Oct 2003 03:30:40 GMT, "Richard B. Katz"
<richard.b.katz@nospamplease.nasa.gov> wrote:

Hi,

I am interested in the reliability of modern FPGA/PLD hardware and
am surveying groups of users for their experience along with
studying reliability data provided by various manufacturers. So,
two basic questions:

1. Are there reliability issues for modern devices with the
higher clock speeds that we are using today? I shall set,
for the sake of discussion, an artificial boundary of 100 MHz
clock frequency for the dividing line between high and not
high speed.

2. Are there handling/assembly/application issues for modern
devices as compared to say devices from 5 years ago? That
is, are there observed changes in sensitivity to conditions
such as ESD, input voltage excursions, transients on the
power supplies, etc.

You also might like to consider packaging. The high performance we
achieve today owes as much to the packaging as to the silicon. New
packaging (e.g. BGA) will have new ways to fail.

High performance also means lots of power, and the thermal aspects may
influence reliability.

Regards,
Allan.