Flexible active cycle stress testing of smart power switches

Active cycling reliability of power devices: Expectations and limitations

“…Subjecting power devices to active cycling requires special test equipment [14]. For instance, short circuit testing of smart power switches may require currents of more than 100 A per device.…”

Crystal-plasticity based thermo-mechanical modeling of Al-components in integrated circuits

“…Various types of damage occur. Two crucial effects are roughening of the contacting plate, which reduces the adhesion to bond contacts as reported in [3,4], and the raise of stresses in the interlayer dielectric (ILD), which finally lead to crack initiation that can result in short circuits and failure of the assembly [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11].…”

3-D electrothermal simulation of active cycling on smart power MOSFETs during short-circuit and UIS conditions

“…(2) repetitive scheme, (2) being more accurate, yet more complex, than (1). For the sake of simplicity, in this analysis we have used the twosimulation approach, which involves the following steps: (i) a transient simulation with the ''fresh'' (i.e., ageing-unaffected) circuit elements is carried out; (ii) at the end of the fresh simulation, the stress of all elements is evaluated; (iii) the parameter values are updated according to the calculated stress; (iv) a new transient simulation is run with the aged elements.…”

“…It is widely recognized that the exposure of a power device to repetitive voltage and current pulses -usually designed as active cycling -gives rise to a relevant increase in dissipated energy and thus in temperature, which can severely affect the reliability (due to an ageing mechanism related to bonding and die attach degradation) and even lead to a sudden device failure triggered by thermal runaway [1,2]. In this scenario, emphasis must be given to transistors operating in overload or short-circuit (SC) mode in embedded applications supplied by a 24 V battery.…”