Semiconductor component qualification

Semiconductor component manufacturers supply to different products in a wide range of market segments, and therefore the end use conditions may not always be known. Qualifying a semiconductor component or demonstrating that it can operate reliably under use conditions can therefore be a challenging task. The goal of this paper is to describe the challenges in semiconductor component qualification and demonstrate how use conditions and product configuration can influence reliability and therefore qualification test selection. Industry practices on component qualification are summarized and an ideal component qualification plan that takes into account end use conditions and product configuration is described.