Qualification Tests for Components and Assemblies

Materials, components, and assemblies have a great impact on the quality and reliability of the equipment and systems in which they are used. Their selection and qualification has to be considered with care by new technologies or important redesigns, on a case-by-case basis. Besides cost and availability on the market, important selection criteria are intended application, technology, quality, longterm behavior of relevant parameters, and reliability. A qualification test includes characterization at different stresses (for instance, electrical and thermal for electronic components), environmental tests, reliability tests, and failure analysis. After some considerations on selection criteria for electronic components (Section 3.1), this chapter deals with qualification tests for complex integrated circuits (Section 3.2) and electronic assemblies (Section 3.4), and discusses basic aspects of failure modes, mechanisms, and analysis of electronic components (Section 3.3). Procedures given in this chapter can be extended to nonelectronic components and materials as well. Reliability related basic technological properties of electronic components are summarized in Appendix A10. Statistical tests are in Chapter 7, test and screening strategies in Chapter 8, design guidelines in Chapter 5.