What is Electrical Overstress? - Analysis and Conclusions

• High-level investigation of publications of the past 40 years.
• Analysis of definitions and perceptions of EOS.
• Historical evolution of the meaning and characteristics of EOS.
• Result: There is no common understanding on EOS.
• Criteria for a useful definition of EOS and proposal of a corresponding definition.

In order to analyse the reasons for continuously high failure rates due to electrical overstress (EOS) a large number of publications published over the past 40 years in the field of EOS is investigated and evaluated. It is found that there is no common understanding on EOS. To resolve this problem criteria for a suitable EOS definition are introduced and a corresponding definition is proposed.