The ROCS Workshop and 25 years of compound semiconductor reliability

Historians normally reflect on political or social progress by recalling events and the personalities that shaped the past. Likewise, this review is meant to chronicle the semiconductor reliability climate and progression by using the context of a workshop that recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. The cumulative database of the workshop was analyzed and various aspects are discussed here. It can be debated whether the workshop fostered reliability improvement or merely documented the improvement, but there certainly has been a progression of learning and growth in the segment described as compound semiconductor reliability. As with any endeavor aimed at continuous improvement, reliability is a journey, not a destination. There can be no definitive conclusion since the workshop continues – just an occasional look back. Although work on compound semiconductor reliability is but a small niche in the electronics world, this reflection is intended to explain how that niche was carved out and why it has persevered. Overall, this summary will make comparisons with a large conglomeration of compound semiconductor results collected since 1975 and attempt to widen the spotlight so that the ROCS Workshop is embedded in a broader reliability picture.