Destruction failure analysis and international reliability test standard for power devices

The demand of power devices such as IGBT is expected to continue to increase in the future for Electric Vehicles (EV), Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV), and industrial applications. Power devices are affected by stresses, such as large current and abrupt temperature changes, which differ from those of normal semiconductor devices, so how to ensure the reliability is an important issue. Especially in practical use, the comprehension of destruction, which comprises the great majority of failures, and the control approach, are key points. We would like to explain some measures to reduce the number of destruction failures. To ensure the power device quality and reliability, the special evaluation and qualification methods are important; however, if we follow the international standards for testing, a large amount of evaluation samples are needed. So in Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA), activities such as standardizing of the power device reliability test method and making a qualification guideline for automotive applications are being performed. In this lecture, we will first explain the trend of power devices and the state of the measures for the destruction failures. Then we will describe the outline of the reliability standard of the power devices, the qualification guideline formulation state for high reliability applications in Japan and the issues of quality and reliability for compound semiconductors.