Microstructural Based Reliability Investigation of Water- and Suspension Free Prepared Integrated Electronic Packages

Abstract

In micro- and power electronics reliability limiting mechanical and (electro-) chemical processes are increasingly caused by the complex structure of the systems, the material compositions and often heterogeneous mixtures of metals, polymers, and ceramics. Additionally, this causes challenging requirements for microstructural analyses and reliability characterization of materials, interfaces, components, and systems. Standardized metallographic routines are not suitable for high resolution analyses of corrosion products and mechanically sensitive systems. Focused ion beam preparation is limited in terms of dimension of the cross sectioned area. Therefore, we developed new preparation concepts by complete water- and suspension free preparation methods using laser and broad ion beam techniques. Two case studies for analyses of power electronic systems potted by inorganic materials and embedded SiC dies show the great potential of these methods for following microstructural analyses.