Burn-in

Abstract

Burn-In is used to screen weak parts from a population of completely processed chips to assist in meeting reliability requirements. This tutorial provides a general introduction to burn-in. It is shown how burn-in improves the failure rate. Typical burn-in conditions, the burn-in models and an example of failure mechanisms are given. The impact of burn-in on technology reliability (hot carriers, gate oxide, electromigration) is discussed, emphasizing that the upper limits of the burn-in conditions can be controlled by technology reliability. Finally the benefits and disadvantages of burn-in are summarized.