ABSTRACT
The goal of this chapter is to provide a unified framework for understanding the factors that govern the reliability of electronic packages. This is achieved by relating the reliability both to the fundamental mechanisms of failure that operate within the constituents as well as their primary driving forces. Indeed, extensive research over the past several decades has provided the electronics hardware design community with an unparalleled degree of understanding of these effects; increasingly, however, relentless miniaturization and increasing power density have required packaging approaches with new materials and architectures with unknown reliability. A predictive capability is therefore vital to minimize the costly and time-consuming procedures of prototyping and qualification testing. In addition, the commodity nature of modern electronic products dictates that they be designed for a specific operational life, and design for longer life represents unnecessary costs. For example, it is generally accepted that there is no need for reliability beyond, say, a few years for cellular telephones or pagers, whereas for military electronics, exceptionally high reliability may be required for well over two or more decades. Furthermore, the industry trend is toward ever shortening design cycles, such that the need for accurate accelerated testing is more acute than ever.
