AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONICS FEATURE ASSESSING THE RISKS
Taqi Mohiuddin, Senior Director of Marketing at Evans Analytical Group (EAG) discusses managing the costs and consequences of failures in automotive electronics
counterfeit components might enter the automotive supply chain and introduce additional risks. This creates further need for screening and analysis plus various types of verification and authentication tests against reliability specifications. These and other complex problems can
only be resolved through a comprehensive approach to failure analysis and resolution. The approach must encompass both electrical and physical analysis to enhance identification of the root cause, the associated failure mechanism, and how to prevent future failures. The focus must be on the entire system, from electronics to materials, and on through failure mechanisms that occur all the way down at the IC transistor level. Effective failure analysis also requires
E
lectronics system failures have become an increasingly serious issue
as today’s systems continue to shrink in size and become significantly more complex and pervasive. The implications of electronics system failures range from costly downtime to product recalls and severe reputational damage. These failures can be found and fixed, however, before they cause harm. The answer lies in a full, multi-disciplinary approach to electronics system failure analysis. System complexity is growing across the board at the die, IC, package and board level. Thanks to ongoing process technology advances, today’s devices contain billions of transistors and integrate a wide variety of previously discrete components and independent subsystems. Devices are also getting smaller with the advent of FinFET, metal gate, low-k dialectric and other advanced process nodes. At the same time, packaging is becoming more complex, with options ranging from SIP, MCM, SiSub and stacked die to TSV and Cu wire. Package and board materials are also more complex, along with coatings and molding compounds. Add to all of these issues the intermittent nature of many failures, and the challenge becomes even more difficult. Consider today’s networking and automotive systems. A networking system might consist of multiple boards
Figure 1:
It is vital to take a full, multi-disciplinary approach to electronics system failure analysis to keep up with continually shrinking devices with increased levels of integration
containing thousands of components, including complex ICs and SoC. These devices may also contain many types of RF, power supply, high-speed digital and storage media on a single chip, with each element requiring specialised domain knowledge in order to understand failure causes and mechanisms.
AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS As for automotive systems, some of today’s vehicles contain as many as 100 electronic control units (ECUs), or more. According to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Automotive Supplier Review 2014, the estimated potential component value in a light vehicle, excluding OEM final assembly costs and profits, has grown at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2 percent from $11,100 in 2000 to $14,000 in 2013. Each automotive device today might include 50 to 100 microprocessors and more than 100 sensors, and failures can occur at any point in a complex chain of both stand-alone and multiple interrelated systems. Cars also include electronics systems for backup cameras and lane-changing warning systems, and others are on the way; including electronic assisted-driving and sensor- guided autopilot systems that can encompass a dozen ultrasonic detectors and multiple cameras and radar sensors. Also troubling is the potential that
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specialised, highly trained and proven expertise extending from the component to the system level, and a large and comprehensive set of lab equipment. Today’s failure analysis service providers must be able to perform parallel processing of large projects, and to scale failure analysis services as scope and demand fluctuate. System redundancy is also important, as is highly specialised equipment including advanced high- resolution microscopy imaging systems that facilitate component-level analysis. Failure characterisation requires fundamental capabilities such as x-ray, thermal mapping, curve trace, time domain reflectometry, and functional test to more advanced tools such as the laser timing probe that supports real-time, no-loading, non-contact signal waveform acquisition. More sophisticated tools such as Nano-probing capabilities are also a key ingredient, making it possible to localise failures down to a transistor at advanced process nodes below 28nm. Finally, effective failure analysis
demands a comprehensive methodology and work flow. The process starts with a definition of the electrical failure signature, continues through identification of the failure mechanism, and ends with resolution of the problem. An expanded scope is necessary in order
to address complex, multiple and interdependent components and features. This requires disciplined and periodic refining of analysis approach based on data and incremental findings. Analysis typically involves developing hypotheses and working to validate or reject them. Experiments may be needed to duplicate and/or model a failure, as well.
Evans Analytical Group
www.eag.com 011 89 87 54 00
Enter 207 ELECTRONICS | OCTOBER 2014 17
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