Title
Online Condition Monitoring Methodology for Power Electronics Package Reliability Assessment
Author
Martin, H.A. (TU Delft Electronic Components, Technology and Materials; Chip Integration Technology Center (CITC)) 
Smits, Edsger C.P. (Chip Integration Technology Center (CITC))
Poelma, René H. (TU Delft Electronic Components, Technology and Materials; Nexperia B.V.)
van Driel, W.D. (TU Delft Electronic Components, Technology and Materials; Signify)
Zhang, Kouchi (TU Delft Electronic Components, Technology and Materials)
Date
2024
Abstract
This article introduces an online condition monitoring strategy that utilizes a transient heat pulse to detect package thermal performance degradation. The metric employed is the temperature-dependent transient thermal impedance "Zth(t, Tamb)."The proposed methodology offers quantitative insights into package thermal performance degradation and effectively pinpoints the presence of multiple failure mechanisms. A thermal test chip assembled in a power quad flat no-lead package is used in this study to demonstrate the methodology. The packaged devices are first characterized to determine the transient pulse duration, a critical parameter to monitor a specific region of interest. Subsequently, package thermal performance degradation is continuously monitored online during thermomechanical cycling lifetime experiments. The validity of the measurement results is later confirmed through acoustic imaging and cross-sectional analysis. The changes observed in Zth(t, Tamb) over thermal cycling correspond to the delamination of the active metal layers on the die and cohesive failure on the die attach. This article further includes a comparative summary, highlighting the distinctions between the proposed and industry-standard test methods. In conclusion, the importance of online condition monitoring to detect early signs of failure is emphasized, and the proposed methodology s practical applicability in real-life scenarios is briefly discussed.
Subject
Electronic packaging
Temperature measurement
Semiconductor device measurement
Temperature sensors
Electrical resistance measurement
Transient analysis
Thermal Cycling
Silver Sintering
Transient Thermal Impedance
Thermal Test Chips
Application-driven Reliability Qualification
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:345b1ae0-59f3-452f-8f5f-40f57587252b
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2024.3352747
Embargo date
2024-07-11
ISSN
0885-8993
Source
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 39 (4), 4725-4734
Bibliographical note
Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.
Part of collection
Institutional Repository
Document type
journal article
Rights
© 2024 H.A. Martin, Edsger C.P. Smits, René H. Poelma, W.D. van Driel, Kouchi Zhang