Copyright VTT

Ageing and life prediction

Helge Palmn, 25.9.2008
CEEES, Helsinki
2
Ageing and ageing effects
Life prediction
Accelerated life-tests
Test planning
Acceleration factors
Case example
Problems in life prediction and
reliability testing
Corrosion on PCB
Contents
3
Ageing and ageing effects
Stresses that cause ageing:
Temperature
Temperature variation
Humidity
Mechanical stresses
vibration and shocks
handling
Voltage and current
Electrical overstress and electrostatic discharges
Other considerations include factors such as
Number of starts/power-ups (on off cycling)
Biological effects
Etc.
4
Failure modes:
Component failures exhibit themselves as:
opens
shorts or
changes in
leakage currents
breakdown voltages
operational parameters
functional operation
5
Ageing / failure mechanisms
The effect of stresses is cumulative damage or degradation is
progressive
Integrated circuits, semiconductor devices:
Gate oxide breakdown
Ionic contamination
Electromigration
Hot electrons
Corrosion
Intermetallic reactions, contact migration
Breakdown of oxide or pn-junctions due to EOS/ESD
Etc.
6
Passive components:
Drying of electrolytic capacitors
Mechanical damage to chip components or solder joints due to
Stresses due to vibration or mechanical shocks
Temperature (high/low, variation due to TCE diferences)
Bending, handling
Corrosion metal parts, component pins, PCB tracks etc.
Metallic parts:
Corrosion
Whisker growth
Mechanical damage (stresses due to vibration, shocks, bending,
etc.)
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Connectors
Contact corrosion (humidity, pollutants), oxidation and / or
contamination
Fretting corrosion
Mechanical damage to solder joints
Cables
Insulation / shield material (polymer) degradation mechanisms
- due to moisture, heat or radiation
Loss of plasticizer leading to cracking
Mechanical ageing or damage
Chemical attack
Electromechanical components:
Contact corrosion, oxidation and / or contamination
Coil burn-out or insulation material degradation
Spacer degradation (plastic material, loss of plasticizer)
8
Life prediction
Reliability data can be found based on
Operational experience field data collection
Usually tells only about random failures before any wear-
out has taken place
Reliability tests / Life tests
Knowledge about use conditions - stresses
What are the relevant failure mechanisms technology,
materials
Acceleration models are also needed
Prediction models (such as MIL-STD-217F, Notice 2 etc.)
Unfortunately these dont include models for wear-out
9
Accelerated life tests
Simulation of the products
life cycle, including:
transport
storage
assembly and installation
use/operation
maintenance
Purpose to find
, MTTF
failure mechanisms
Life tests especially aim at:
useful life failure rate,
lifetime
Stress screening in turn
aims at eliminating the early
failures
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Accelerated life tests, cont.
Goals
to study occurrence of failures during the life cycle
transport, storage, installation and operation simulated
find distribution of failures in time
find out failure mechanisms
How
accelerated conditions or increased frequency of stresses are used
stresses:
temperature and temperature change
mechanical stresses (bump, shock, vibration)
Humidity
etc.
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Accelerated life tests, cont.
Step stress test, principle:
This test is useful in quickly finding the limits and weak points in the design
The test is continued until:
enough margin has been reached
all fail
irrelevant failures appear
S
t
r
e
s
s

l
e
v
e
l
Time
Functional limit
Technological limit
Figure 2. Principle of step-stress testing
12
Test planning
Steps:
1. Definition of requirements (reliability, life time)
2. Environmental conditions
3. Determination of duty cycles
4. Extreme conditions (temperature, humidity, mechanical,
electrical., EMI/EOS/ESD etc.)
5. Planning of life test
tests describing transport, storage, installation
tests describing operation
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Step stress test example, testing of electromagnetic
relays
Figure 1. Step stress test results for one relay
Step stress, relay no 32
0,0
20,0
40,0
60,0
80,0
100,0
120,0
140,0
160,0
180,0
200,0
0 h 55 C 168 h 70 C 168 h 100 C 242 h 115 C 160 h 130 C 183 h 140 C 169 h
Temperature and test time at step
D
e
l
a
y
s

[
m
s
]
,

c
o
n
c
t
a
c
t

r
e
s
i
s
t
a
n
c
e

[
m

]
Delay 1
1
Delay 2
2
R
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Acceleration factors
Acceleration factors are needed for:
Temperature
Change of temperature
Humidity
Mechanical stress
Other considerations
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Acceleration factors, continued
Temperature
Arrhenius:
A = t
ref
/t
test
= e
[
E
A/k * (1/Tref - 1/Ttest)]
Activation energies, problems:
depend on failure mechanism
not always known
multiple failure mechanisms exist
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Activation energies for different failure mechanisms
Failure mechanism (semiconductor devices) Activation energy, E
A
[eV]
Ionic contamination 1,0
Dielectric breakdown (TDDB) 0,2 - 0,35 (0,3)
Hot carrier trapping in oxide -0,06
Electromigration 0,5
Contact electromigration 0,9
(Al at sidewall) 0,8 - 1,4
Contact metal migration through barrier layer 1,8
Au-Al intermetallic growth 1,0
Corrosion, electrolytic 0,79 - 0,9
And what about failure mechanisms for other components, parts, materials etc.
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Effect of activation energy on acceleration factor
1
10
100
1000
10000
100000
25 35 45 55 65 75 85 95 105 115
Test temperature [C]
A
c
c
e
l
e
r
a
t
i
o
n

f
a
c
t
o
r
1,2 eV
1,0 eV
0,9 eV
0,8
0,7 eV
0,5 eV
0,3 eV
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Acceleration factors, continued
Change of temperature
A =
n
use
test
use
test
t
t
x
day cycles
day cycles

/
/
The acceleration factor is made of two factors - duty cycle
and temperature difference, (n 1):
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Acceleration factors, continued
Humidity
Model presented by Peck (1987) for plastic encapsulated
integrated circuits (Al conductor electrolytic corrosion)
Note: Other models exist (and are used) for plastic devices (e.g.
Lawsons model for thick film and semiconductor device
degradation)
A = t
ref
/t
test
= (RH
test
/RH
ref
)
3

*
e
[E
A
/K * (1/T
ref
- 1/T
test
)]
where the activation energy for corrosion is 0,9 eV.
20
Acceleration factors, continued
Mechanical stress
MIL-STD810E, gives for sinusoidal and random vibration respectively:
W (ref) / W (test) = [ T (test) / T (ref) ]
n-1/b
where W is the sinusoidal level of vibration (peak
acceleration), and
W (ref) / W (test) = [ T (test) / T (ref) ]
n/b
where W is the random vibration level (acceleration
power spectral density)
The MIL standard gives n/b = 1/6 and (n-1)/b = 1/4
21
Acceleration factors, continued
Other considerations:
time compression - ON/OFF cycles (length/frequency)
EMI, EOS, ESD
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Case: Electronic energy meter
A three phase household energy meter
Operating conditions:
T = 23 C, RH
Test conditions
T = 100 C, test length 12 000 h
Acceleration factor was calculated using Siemens Norm 29500
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Case: Energy meter, continued
ref a ref a
a a
z E z E
z E z E
T
e A e A
e A e A


+
+
=
2 1
2 1
) 1 (
) 1 (

with
2 , 0
1 1
(
1
T T k
z
ref amb
= )
and
1 , 0
1 1
(
1
T T k
z
ref amb
= ) in (eV)
-1
24
Case: Energy meter, continued
Table 3. Failure rates at 23 C and 100 C (FIT, failures in 10
9
h)
[FIT]
N 23 C % 100 C % Acceleration factor
Integrated circuits 2 7 4 156 5 24
Transistors 7 6 4 136 4 24
Diodes 22 5 4 140 5 26
Capacitors 37 20 13 1922 63 98
Resistors 76 58 56 345 16 6
Inductive 3 7 5 38 1 6
Crystals 1 6 4 163 5 26
Electromechanical 1 15 10 15 1 1
Optocouplers 1 2 2 127 4 57
Total 126 100 3042 100 24
25
Case: Energy meter, continued
Life test results
no failures
stability - conformed to IEC 61036 standard
82 FIT
1998-1999 observed field failure rate 73
Siemens Norm: 125 FIT
T 2
) 2 2 (
2
% 60
+ =

i s t h e d e g r e e o f f r e e d o m , i s t h e n u m b e r
o f f a i l e d o n e s a n d T i s t h e c u m u l a t i v e t o t a l t e s t
t i m e c o n v e r t e d t o o p e r a t i n g c o n d i t i o n s
26
Problems in life prediction and reliability testing
No or limited field experience time or failure mechanisms
The true life cycle stresses are not always known
Limitations of the models extrapolation from test conditions to use
conditions is difficult (especially for humidity, corrosive gasses)
Too high stress levels in testing: non-typical failure mechanisms are
introduced
Too low stress levels: no failures no knowledge of failure mechanisms
Too few samples low statistical significance of results
Multiple failure mechanisms: for example at high temperatures those
mechanisms with high activation energy may dominate (and mask more
relevant mechanisms)
Failure analysis after test may not always be successful
27
Silver dendrites
28
Zinc whiskers, relay
29
Origin of zinc whisker
30
Zinc whiskers on cabinet structures, air conditioning strucutres
31
Relay spacer degradation
32
Cracked smart card IC
33
Corroded pins of an IC (sulphur in factory athmosphere)
34
MOS-transistor (ESD tai EOS)
35
Corrosion on IC metallization
36
???contamination on PCB contact
37
Oxidized metaalized capacitor film(moisture in fabrication process)
38
Corroded IC pins
39
An example of decapsulated ICs (by applying hot fuming nitric and sulphur acid)
40
Contact contamination -> intermittent contact
41
Human problems are also possible
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Thank you for your attention!