Efficient Power Conversion Corp (EPC) of El Segundo, CA, USA - which makes enhancement-mode gallium nitride on silicon (eGaN) power field-effect transistors (FETs) for power management applications – has announced its Phase Eight Reliability Report, showing the results of the rigorous set of JEDEC-based qualification stress tests that eGaN FETs and integrated circuits undertake prior to being considered qualified products.
Product-specific detailed stress test results for over 8 million actual device hours are provided, showing zero failures. In addition to product qualification stress testing, due diligence is necessary in other areas of reliability such as field experience, failures over device operational lifetime, and board level reliability, says EPC. More specifically, the three sections of tests covered in the Phase Eight Reliability Report are:
Field Reliability Experience (examining field failures, assembly failures, applications failures, and intrinsic die qualification); Early Life Failure and Wear-out Capability (early life failure rate, and electro-migration); Board Level Reliability and Thermo-mechanical Capability (intermittent operating life, temperature cycling, and board-level reliability).
EPC says that the report, coupled with the field reliability of eGaN FETs and ICs given in the Phase Seven Reliability Report - which documented the accumulation of over 17 billion device operation hours combined with a very low failure rate below 1 FIT (failures per billion hours) - demonstrates that the stress-based qualification testing is capable of ensuring reliability in customer applications. The cumulative reliability information compiled shows that eGaN FETs and ICs have solid reliability and are able to operate with very low probability of failures within reasonable lifetimes of end products manufactured today, adds the firm.
"Demonstration of the reliability of new technology is a major undertaking and one that EPC takes very seriously," comments EPC's CEO & co-founder Dr Alex Lidow. "The tests described in this report, along with the reported results, show that EPC gallium nitride products have the requisite reliability to displace silicon as the technology of choice for semiconductors."
