Assessing Long-Term Reliability Through Accelerated Aging Stress Tests on a On-Chip Quality and Reliability Platform: A Band Gap Reference Case Study

The accelerated aging stress test is essential for assessing the reliability and quality of band gap reference (BGR) circuits, which are crucial for maintaining consistent voltage references in ICs. In this study, we present accelerated aging analysis of a classic BGR design as an case study. A BGR circuit, validated on a Quality and Reliability On-Chip (QROC) platform, demonstrated temperature coefficient of <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$0.12 \text{ mV} /{}^{\circ} \mathrm{C}$</tex> across 25° C to 100° C, ensuring minimal drift with temperature fluctuations. The output reference voltage <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$(V_{{ref}}) 646$</tex> mV was measured over a supply voltage range of 0.8V to 1.4V, with a <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\pm 7.5 \text{ppm} / \mathrm{V}$</tex>. The circuit's robustness was further confirmed by observing only a 1% change in <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$V_{{ref}}$</tex> after a million-second stress test at varying temperatures and a stress voltage 1.4V. This result, showing less than 6.5% deviation from post-layout simulations, underscores the BGR's resilience and precision, highlighting the importance of such stress testing in predicting IC performance and longevity.