Highly accelerated lifetime testing in power electronics

This paper presents case studies on application of accelerated mechanical fatigue testing for evaluation of wire bond interconnects and interfaces in electronic devices. A dedicated experimental set-up is designed to induce fatigue failure in the weak sites of the devices by reproducing the failure modes occurring during operation. Acceleration is achieved by increasing the mechanical testing frequency enabling determination of lifetime curves in a very short time. Exemplary studies on the degradation and fatigue failure of heavy wire bonds typically used in power electronics are presented and advantages and some restrictions of the proposed method are briefly discussed.