Application of Machine Model ESD tester to high volume capacitor reliability testing

Electro-Static Discharge (ESD) is a common cause of failure for RF semiconductors during module assembly processes and service of the RF modules in end-customer applications (i.e. field service). To develop and verify semiconductor capacitor designs with sufficient ruggedness to withstand a given ESD environment during customer assembly and field service, sufficient quantities of devices need to be tested to determine larger failure voltage distributions rather than the minimal three required for product qualification (Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) [1] and [2]). Using ESD voltage breakdown testing one can more precisely and statistically simulate actual field failures when compared to testing on-wafer DC ramp-to-failure voltage (Whitman et al., 2004 [3]).