Accelerated reliability testing of Cu-Al bimetallic contact by a micropattern corrosion testing platform for wire bond device application

Accelerated reliability testing of integrated circuit (IC) packages, such as wire-bonded devices, is a useful tool for predicting the lifetime corrosion behavior of real-world devices. Standard tests, such as highly accelerated stress test, involves subjecting an encapsulated device to high levels of humidity and high temperature (commonly 85–121 ⁰C and 85–100% relative humidity). A major drawback of current reliability tests is that mechanistic information of what occurs between t = 0 and device failure is not captured. A novel method of in-situ investigation of the device corrosion process was developed to capture the real time mechanistic information not obtained in standard reliability testing [1]. The simple, yet effective methodology involves: • Immersing a micropattern or device directly into contaminant-spiked aqueous solution, and observing its morphological changes under optical microscope paired with a camera. • Short (2–48 h) time required for testing (compared to 24–300 h of standard tests). • No need for humidity chambers.