Intermodulation distortion as indicator for interconnect degradation

The scope of this paper lies in the justification and combination of observed non-linearities in passive components with their remaining lifetime. We investigate the applicability of non-linearity measurement techniques for detecting interconnect degradations in their early state. In the first part of the paper we describe the generation of intermodulation signals and show ways to use these signals as indicator for upcoming failures. This technique could overcome the drawbacks in sensitivity of more traditional measurement techniques like resistance measurements. In the second part, two kinds of specimen are used to investigate their non-linear behavior during degradation. Failure analysis is done to inspect the degradation states of the specimens and compare it to measurement. At the end we show experimentally a link between non-linearity and degradation and give an outlook to future improvements.