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Home » Quality » Product Reliability

Product Reliability

Product Reliability    Package Reliability    Semiconductor Reliability

Hittite Microwave Corporation breaks down reliability into two categories, semiconductor reliability and package reliability. Reliability is the probability of a product to meet or exceed the specified requirements under the specified operating conditions throughout the specified mission life. Some examples of operating conditions may be but are not limited to:

Expected Service Life (Time)
Temperature Stress (Steady State and Cyclical)
Humidity (Tropical Environment)
Vibration and Shock (Real World Use)
Corrosion (Chemical Resistance)
Electrical Stresses (Operating Conditions)

It is ultimately the end user who determines the environmental conditions the product will be subjected to, as well as the expectations under these conditions. We perform reliability analyses by studying customer specific and/or industry-standard environmental conditions for the anticipated applications. These conditions are simulated and verified by utilizing our complete laboratory of Reliability & Qualification Equipment (listed below).

Commercial Standard Qualification & Monitor Programs

Reliability & Environmental Screening Facilities & Equipment

Hittite maintains a complete in-house reliability/screening facility:

Acoustic Microscope
package void/delamination inspection

Bond Pull, Ball Shear & Die Shear test
Destructive & non-destructive test of wirebonds
Destructive test of component attachment

Centrifuge Chamber
High G-force constant acceleration test

Environmental Chamber
Thermal shock test
Temperature cycling test

Helium Leak Detector
Hermeticity testing

Humidity Testing
Highly accelerated stress test (HAST) Chamber
Autoclave, Pressure cooker test
Temperature/Humidity under bias (THB)
Moisture Stress Level Test (MSL)
Accelerated aging (Solderability)

IR Reflow System
IR reflow simulation test
Soldering profile optimization

Liquid Crystal Thermography

Thermal Characterization
Fault isolation

Optical Inspection
High power microscope inspection to 1600X
Digital & 35mm micro/macro photography
Bright/dark field & polarized light inspection

Precision Solder Pot
Solderability testing
Resistance to solder heat test

Thermal Chamber
High Temperature operating Life (HTOL)
Burn-in Screening

Thermal Probe Station

Wafer level testing over temperature
Laser for tuning and circuit isolation

Vibration Table
Operating and non-operating vibration testing

Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)
High definition imaging for analysis & evaluation of materials
Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX)
Material Identification
Quantitative analysis
High-Speed Elemental Mapping