IC design and reliability issues

Reliability is a key issue with complex ASICs. Reliability data is important to the cost and long term performance assessment of the device and indirectly of the entire module, and ultimately to the system itself. The operating conditions that affect reliability are: (1) Temperature (2) Humidity (3) Temperature cycling (4) Voltage stresses (5) Current stresses. These stresses if applied with sufficient magnitude, will cause rapid deterioration and ultimate failure of the device. So it is only logical to use these stresses to evaluate reliability of the device. JEDEC stress testing standards are one way to come up with set of approaches to assess the reliability of the device. The website is http://jedec.org.