Reliability testing

Material, Stress, Mechanical and Environmental induced mechanisms

TC, TCT, HTOL, HAST, HTS

Advanced Packaging Diodes Integrated Circuits Light Emitting Diodes Transistors Thyristors Reliability

Reliability

After packaging and testing, encapsulated semiconductor devices must exhibit good reliability. Reliability is related to the probability at which packaged microelectronic systems will remain functional under realistic operating conditions for a given period of time.¹More often, accelerated test methods are performed to assess the field reliability of these devices because monitoring the performance and functionality of all device or package combinations seems to be nowhere near to possible.²These accelerated reliability tests are performed to (1) elicit a certain failure mode rapidly, (2) identify package defects and possible failure sites and mechanisms, and (3) forecast the useful lifetime of the device based on acceleration factors. These tests are only effective if they induce problems that the devices might encounter under normal operating conditions.

Industry organizations set test standards that define which tests to perform and how to conduct them, ensuring that these tests accurately and consistently trigger failure modes across all industry suppliers. The initial standard, MIL-STD-883, was created to assess packaged electronic microsystems for military and aerospace purposes. Nevertheless, more recent standards were introduced because MIL-STD-883 was designed at a time when most packages were hermetic, meaning the chips were sealed within metallic cans or enclosed between ceramic substrates and caps. Currently, the Joint Electron Devices Engineering Council (JEDEC) establishes the standards for plastic semiconductor practices, with most of the reliability and qualification criteria falling under the JESD22 family of methods.³ Still, the testing methods stay mostly the same, but what's different are the conditions the packages are subjected to.

Common Reliability Tests

Test	Abbreviation	Purpose	Test Conditions
Preconditioning	Precon	Performed before other reliability tests to mimic the solder reflow conditions of surface mount packages	See Preconditioning
High-temperature storage	HTS	Elicit bond pad metallization failures by heating and halide reaction	1000 h at 150 or 175 °C
Temperature cycling	TC	Induce thermal stress on the chip and the package	–65 °C to 150 °C for 1000 cycles in air
Thermal shock	TS	Induce thermal stress on the chip and the package	–65 °C to 150 °C for 1000 cycles in liquid
Temperature humidity bias	THB	Test the passivation integrity against ionic species under moisture and applied electrical bias	1000 h at 85 °C/ 85% RH
Autoclave	ACLV	Test the passivation integrity against ionic species under moisture	168 h or more at 121 °C and 15–30 psig
Highly accelerated temperature and humidity stress testing	HAST	Accelerated version of THB	110 °C or 130 °C under 85% RH and under vapor pressure for at least 96 h

Source: JEDEC, JEP150, Stress-Test-Driven Qualification of and Failure Mechanisms Associated with Assembled Solid State Surface-Mount Components, May 2005, Table 1.³

References

¹Zhang, Hengyun Che, Faxing Lin, Tingyu Zhao, Wensheng. (2020). Modeling, Analysis, Design, and Tests for Electronics Packaging beyond Moore - 1.2.3 Stress and Reliability Issues. Elsevier.

²Chung, Henry Shu-hung Wang, Huai Blaabjerg, Frede Pecht, Michael. (2016). Reliability of Power Electronic Converter Systems - 4.1 Introduction. Institution of Engineering and Technology (The IET).

³Chen, A., & Lo, R.H.-Y. (2012). Semiconductor Packaging: Materials Interaction and Reliability (1st ed.). CRC Press.