Shortening Burn-In Test: Application of Weibull Statistical Analysis & HVST

Burn-in is currently the most popular form of accelerated testing in the semiconductor industry. It subjects devices under test to accelerated temperature and voltage stresses to screen so-called ´infant mortalities´ (latent failures). However, burn-in incurs high cost and turnaround time. This paper presents a methodology for burn-in test reduction based on the extended use of the high-voltage stress test (HVST) technique. The Weibull statistical analysis is used to model the infant mortality failure distribution. The linear rectification method is employed to estimate the Weibull parameters. The results show that the burn-in duration can be reduced by up to 90% using the proposed approach