Highly Accelerated Mechanical Lifetime Testing for Wire Bonds in Power Electronics

— This article presents various experimental studies on fatigue evaluation of wire bond interconnects and interfaces in electronic devices using an accelerated mechanical fatigue testing system. This dedicated experimental setup is designed to induce fatigue failure in the weak sites of the wire bond by reproducing the thermomechanical failure modes occurring during operation. An exceptional highly test acceleration is achieved by increasing the mechanical testing frequency into the kHz regimen enabling the determination of lifetime curves in a very short time. A comparison of this method to conventional testing methods such as power cycling, a shear testing exploits the potential of customized accelerated mechanical testing. Exemplary studies on the degra- dation and fatigue failure of heavy Al wire bonds typically used in power electronics and novel Cu wire bonds are presented and advantages and some restrictions of the proposed method are discussed.