Reliability qualification of a smart power technology for high temperature application based on physics-of-failure and risk & opportunity assessment

As quality requirements in the semiconductor industry increase and costs and time to market put ever more stringent constraints on the development of new technologies and products, more proactive action is needed in the qualification of semiconductor devices. The risk & opportunity assessment is presented as a procedure for qualification of semiconductors that is based on the physics-of-failure concept and the relation of product requirements and the properties of the product and its elements. The applicability of the procedure is illustrated using an example from qualification of a Smart Power Technology for automotive applications. This kind of technology combines digital and analog capabilities with power switching and is extensively used today.