EXPERIMENTAL QUALIFICATION ASSESSMENT AND FAILURE ANALYSIS FOR REWORKED AND TRIMMED EMBEDDED RESISTOR TECHNOLOGIES

Abstract

Discrete passive components are continuing to increase in use in electronic systems even though manufacturers are increasing the degree to which these systems are integrating. Driven by performance, size and economic concerns, embedded passives were introduced to the market in the early 1980s. However, significant obstacles to characterize, evaluate and integrate embedded passives must be overcome before widespread adoption is realized.

This thesis explores the reliability concerns and subsequent failure assessment for variously configured, reworked and trimmed Gould subtractive nickel chromium and MacDermid additive nickel phosphorous embedded resistor technologies within a printed wiring board substrate. Environmental qualification included: thermal characterization, stabilization baking, temperature cycling, thermal shocking and temperature/humidity aging. In addition, a pre/post lamination analysis is included along with a systematic three level hierarchical failure analysis to extract critical failure mechanisms induced through environmental qualification. Ultimately, a material stability assessment and comparison with well established discrete resistor technologies was achieved.