The Latent Failure Issue Seen from the Other Side: Normal Operation after ESD Induced Degeneration of Devices and Systems

Abstract

This work shows that Transmission-Line-Pulsing method can induce damage to electronic devices without causing a complete malfunction. Yet, this damage can later lead to dysfunction during operation. This could be verified in SMD ceramic capacitors and a CAN bus Transceiver IC. After the TLP stress, a functionality test showed that the device was harmed but not destroyed. Therefore, these defects are inconspicuous within a system, thus “latent”. Further stress in the allowed operating range (AMR) lead to a gradually deteriorated functionality until the device failed. In the field, the resulted defect would probably be categorized as electrical overstress (EOS) with an unknown root cause.