Capacitor defect rate

What is the failure rate of a capacitor?

The failure rate of capacitors can be divided into three regions by time and is represented by a bathtub curve as shown in Figure 37. (1) Early failures *31 exhibits a shape where the failure rate decreases over time. The vast majority of capacitor's initial defects belong to those built into capacitors during processing.

Why are capacitor defects important?

Defects in circuit elements, such as capacitors, are as important as any other cause of device fallout. Historically, integrated capacitors have been a leading reason for early failure, so this work describes the detection, root cause analysis, and the mitigation of three types of capacitor defects.

Do capacitor defects contribute to infant and latent failures in integrated circuits?

Capacitor defects significantly contribute to infant and latent failures in integrated circuits. This paper will address methods of locating capacitor defects and root cause determi-nation. Keysight Technologies’ failure analysis team investigated tens of failures in an externally purchased voltage controlled oscillator (VCO).

What type of capacitor is most likely to fail?

Mica and tantalum capacitors are more likely to fail in the early period of use (early failure), while aluminum electrolytic capacitors are more likely to experience wear-out failure due to aging use. In the case of film capacitors, when a local short circuit failure occurs, the shorted area may temporarily self-heal.

What happened to capacitor failures?

By the end of the defect reduction efforts (in just one factory), capacitor failures had dropped to 5%, whereas many of those fallouts now originate from other external factories which utilize different semiconductor technologies and have different capacitor formation methods.

How can defect mitigation reduce capacitor returns?

Defect mitigation methods have reduced capacitor returns from customers significantly. Integrated circuit defectivity is becoming a top concern for Reliability Engineers and their customers. Device lifetimes and times to wearout are less important compared to the experience of an early or infant failure in the warranty period.