Duch, LorisPeón-Quirós, MiguelWeckx, PieterLevisse, Alexandre Sébastien JulienBraojos Lopez, RubenCatthoor, FranckyAtienza Alonso, David2020-06-162020-06-162020-06-162020-06-0910.1109/TVLSI.2020.3003471000573773200004https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/169343Aging effects in digital circuits change the switching characteristics of their transistors, resulting in timing violations that can lead to functional errors at the system level. In particular, BTI is a degradation effect that changes the threshold voltage of transistors. Its effect is more prevalent as the scaling of transistor dimensions progresses. In this work, we present a method to enable defect-centric long-term modeling of BTI degradation that takes into account the effects of concrete workloads at the processor data path level. Based on this study, we propose a novel design flow to link the impact of BTI degradation at the transistor (Vth), processor data path (e.g., maximum frequency) and application-functionality levels. This flow may be used to improve system correctness over the entire device lifetime, avoiding unsafe working points, or to achieve a graceful degradation of system characteristics. Our design flow is applicable to all types of digital circuits, including high-performance processors. However, in this specific work we focus on the domain of biosignal processing applications for WBSNs, whose pseudo-periodic nature interacts with the partially recoverable nature of BTI. Our results in this domain show, for a 32 nm implementation, a variation of up to 54.6 mV in the threshold voltage of the circuit transistors after one year of continuous operation, with an impact of 8.4 % in the maximum safe operating frequency. Such effects are expected to strongly worsen for longer lifetimes and more scaled technology nodes.Bias Temperature InstabilityBTIReliabilityTransistor degradationFunctional errorstext::journal::journal article::research article