Factoring Interacting Stress Mechanisms in Design for Reliability of Extreme Environment Power Modules

Abstract

As power densification demands are placing electronic packages under greater reliability risk, the consequences of complementary or interacting stresses in producing failure are becoming increasingly significant. As such, it is important that reliability methods and package designs consider how multiplestress interactions may impact product life. Here, the coordination between a novel accelerated testing method and electronic design automation efforts has demonstrated a successful optimization approach for a wire-bonded 2D module layout combining failure mechanisms of electromigration and mechanical stressing. Utilizing custom, physics-of-failure approaches in accelerated testing, interactions can be observed in failure acceleration, which then can be incorporated into design for reliability (DfR) optimization tools. The PowerSynth 2 platform has been utilized as a DfR tool to perform a rapid reliability evaluation incorporating multistress scenarios. This work demonstrates the value added to reliability evaluation techniques when accounting for interacting failure mechanisms and suggests that next-generation power devices consider these effects in lifetime estimation.