Thermal excursion accelerating factors [GaAs reliability testing]

For more than a decade, the focus of GaAs reliability testing has been on high temperature life testing. Several failure mechanisms are highly accelerated by temperature, so this methodology has produced data that is easy to analyze and straightforward to predict applicable lifetimes - albeit very long lifetimes. To the contrary, GaAs devices actually fail for quite different failure mechanisms during typical use. This study will address a failure mechanism accelerated by thermal excursions instead of high temperatures. Thermal excursion mechanisms are ones accelerated by temperature cycling, thermal shock, or simulation of infrared (IR) reflow.