Reliability and Failure of Electronic Materials and Devices

Milton Ohring, Lucian Kasprzak

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9780080575520
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Reliability and Failure of Electronic Materials and Devices is a well-established and well-regarded reference work offering unique, single-source coverage of most major topics related to the performance and failure of materials used in electronic devices and electronics packaging. With a focus on statistically predicting failure and product yields, this book can help the design engineer, manufacturing engineer, and quality control engineer all better understand the common mechanisms that lead to electronics materials failures, including dielectric breakdown, hot-electron effects, and radiation damage. This new edition adds cutting-edge knowledge gained both in research labs and on the manufacturing floor, with new sections on plastics and other new packaging materials, new testing procedures, and new coverage of MEMS devices.- Covers all major types of electronics materials degradation and their causes, including dielectric breakdown, hot-electron effects, electrostatic discharge, corrosion, and failure of contacts and solder joints- New updated sections on "failure physics, " on mass transport-induced failure in copper and low-k dielectrics, and on reliability of lead-free/reduced-lead solder connections- New chapter on testing procedures, sample handling and sample selection, and experimental design- Coverage of new packaging materials, including plastics and composites

Chapter 1

An Overview of Electronic Devices and Their Reliability

Abstract

Never in human existence have scientific and technological advances transformed our lives more profoundly, and in so short a time, as during what may be broadly termed the Age of Electricity and Electronics. From the telegraph in 1837 (which was in a sense digital, although clearly electromechanical) to the telephone and teletype, television and the personal computer, the cell phone and the digital camera, and the World Wide Web, the progress has been truly breathtaking. All these technologies have been focused on communicating information at ever increasing speeds. In contrast to the millennia-long metal ages of antiquity, this age is only little more than a century old. Instead of showing signs of abatement, there is every evidence that its pace of progress is accelerating. In both a practical and theoretical sense, a case can be made for dating the origin of this age to the eighth decade of the nineteenth century. The legacy of tinkering with voltaic cells, electromagnets, and heating elements culminated in the inventions of the telephone in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell, and the incandescent light bulb 3 years later by Thomas Alva Edison. Despite the fact that James Clerk Maxwell published his monumental work Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism in 1873, the inventors probably did not know of its existence. With little in the way of “science” to guide them, innovation came from wonderfully creative and persistent individuals who incrementally improved devices to the point of useful and reliable function. This was the case with the telephone and incandescent lamp, perhaps the two products that had the greatest influence in launching the widespread use of electricity. After darkness was illuminated and communication over distance demonstrated, the pressing need for electric generators and systems to distribute electricity was apparent. Once this infrastructure was in place, other inventions and products capitalizing on electromagnetic-mechanical phenomena quickly followed. Today, texting from a cell phone has replaced the telegraph for the ultimate person-to-person real-time digital conversation. Literally, the telegraph of 1837 has become texting in 2007. Both use letters to interact with someone on the other end (of the wire, so to speak). The rate is about the same, possibly a letter or so a second, when you consider composition for texting, which is real time versus predefined on a form for the telegraph. Both the telegraph (1837) and texting (2007) have roughly the same data entry rate of about two letters a second.

Keywords

Electronic devices; Integrated circuits; Reliability; Solid-state devices

1.1. Electronic Products

1.1.1. Historical Perspective

Never in human existence have scientific and technological advances transformed our lives more profoundly, and in so short a time, as during what may be broadly termed the Age of Electricity and Electronics.¹ From the telegraph in 1837 (which was in a sense digital, although clearly electromechanical) to the telephone and teletype, television and the personal computer, the cell phone and the digital camera, and the World Wide Web (WWW), the progress has been truly breathtaking. All these technologies have been focused on communicating information at ever increasing speeds. In contrast to the millennia-long metal ages of antiquity, this age is only little more than a century old. Instead of showing signs of abatement, there is every evidence that its pace of progress is accelerating. In both a practical and theoretical sense, a case can be made for dating the origin of this age to the eighth decade of the nineteenth century [1]. The legacy of tinkering with voltaic cells, electromagnets, and heating elements culminated in the inventions of the telephone in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell, and the incandescent light bulb 3 years later by Thomas Alva Edison. Despite the fact that James Clerk Maxwell published his monumental work Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism in 1873, the inventors probably did not know of its existence. With little in the way of “science” to guide them, innovation came from wonderfully creative and persistent individuals who incrementally improved devices to the point of useful and reliable function. This was the case with the telephone and incandescent lamp, perhaps the two products that had the greatest influence in launching the widespread use of electricity. After darkness was illuminated and communication over distance demonstrated, the pressing need for electric generators and systems to distribute electricity was apparent. Once this infrastructure was in place, other inventions and products capitalizing on electromagnetic-mechanical phenomena quickly followed. Today, texting from a cell phone has replaced the telegraph for the ultimate person-to-person real-time digital conversation. Literally, the telegraph of 1837 has become texting in 2007. Both use letters to interact with someone on the other end (of the wire, so to speak). The rate is about the same, possibly a letter or so a second, when you consider composition for texting, which is real time versus predefined on a form for the telegraph. Both the telegraph (1837) and texting (2007) have roughly the s...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Preface to the Second Edition
• Preface to the First Edition
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1. An Overview of Electronic Devices and Their Reliability
• Chapter 2. Electronic Devices: How They Operate and Are Fabricated
• Chapter 3. Defects, Contaminants, and Yield
• Chapter 4. The Mathematics of Failure and Reliability
• Chapter 5. Mass Transport-Induced Failure
• Chapter 6. Electronic Charge-Induced Damage
• Chapter 7. Environmental Damage to Electronic Products
• Chapter 8. Packaging Materials, Processes, and Stresses
• Chapter 9. Degradation of Contacts and Package Interconnections
• Chapter 10. Degradation and Failure of Electro-Optical Materials and Devices
• Chapter 11. Characterization and Failure Analysis of Materials and Devices
• Chapter 12. Future Directions and Reliability Issues
• Appendix
• Acronyms
• Index