Humidity and corrosion susceptibility of molded packages under mechanical impact Novel package level impact test to provoke micro-damage

In this study we propose a new approach to assess micro-damage in semiconductor packages, such as cracks or delamination. The main goal is to identify micro-damage, which does not instantly result in electrical failure of a component, but rather decreases humidity resistance and, hence, results in increased risk of early electrical package failure in humid environments. The proposed test method consists of two consecutive stress tests: 1) Package level impact test and 2) In-situ Highly Accelerated Stress Test. As preliminary work, this study deals with the setup of the impact tester and first experiments on simple molding compound samples and packages. We implemented a simulation model of the impact tester in order to define damage criteria and predict failures of different package designs in the future. The simulation model was partly calibrated with the help of experimental data, namely drop weight fall time, shock acceleration and plastic deformation of molding compound samples.