Oscillation and sequential behavior caused by opens in the routing in digital CMOS circuits

Shorts and opens are the most common types of catastrophic defects in today's CMOS ICs. In this paper we show that an open in the interconnect wiring of a digital CMOS circuit, which permanently disconnects inputs of logic gates from their driver, can cause oscillation or sequential behavior. We present supporting experimental data collected by creating an interconnect open in a manufactured chip. We also show that the conditions for oscillation and sequential behavior are likely to occur in many interconnect opens.