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Failure Modes and Failure Analysis

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Solid State Lighting Reliability

Part of the book series: Solid State Lighting Technology and Application Series ((SSLTA,volume 1))

Abstract

Reliability is related to all levels of an application, from component or device level to system or environment level. Even though all these levels are linked and interact with each other, they are described separately in this chapter. For each level of the system, the dominant failure modes are summarized, and where possible related models describing the degradation are discussed. The chapter is illustrated with pictures of failure modes and an overview of appropriate failure analysis techniques is given. The approach is from an industrial point of view, rather than from academic point of view. Both catastrophic failures and degradation modes resulting in a decreasing light output are discussed. Amongst catastrophic failures, die cracking, electrical opens, electrical shorts, delamination, damage from ESD at the different levels, and driver failures are addressed. Phenomena causing decreasing lumen output are amongst others all mechanisms that affect the recombination of holes and electrons in the active area of the LED, degradation of the lens and of the encapsulant, yellowing of the lens and of the encapsulant, outgassing and deposition, increase of the contact resistance, and degradation of the phosphors. For most failure and degradation mechanisms, a good temperature control is a key. A major challenge is that the time to generate data to predict lumen depreciation is of the same order of magnitude as the life cycle of a LED.

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Abbreviations

T j :

Junction temperature

L70:

Time to reach 70% of the initial lumen output

EOS:

Electrical overstress

ESD:

Electrostatic discharge

TVS:

Transient voltage suppression diode

LEE:

Light extraction efficiency

CTE:

Coefficient of thermal expansion

CME:

Coefficient of moisture expansion

IMC:

Intermetallic compound

MCPCB:

Metal-core printed circuit board

C-SAM:

C-mode scanning acoustic microscope

EDX:

Energy dispersive X-ray analysis

SAC:

Tin silver copper solder alloy (Sn–Ag–Cu)

AuSn:

Eutectic gold tin solder composition (AuSn)

SEM:

Scanning electron microscopy

TEM:

Transmission electron microscopy

TST:

Thermal shock testing

TCT:

Thermal cyclic testing

ESR:

Electron spin resonance

pcLED:

Phosphor converted LED

HAZ:

Heat affected zone

GGI:

Gold to gold interconnect

AF:

Acceleration factor

FIT:

Failures in 109 device hours

HTOL:

High temperature operating life test

MM:

Machine model (ESD)

CDM:

Charged device model (ESD)

HBM:

Human body model (ESD)

MD:

Misfit dislocations

TD:

Threaded dislocations

AFM:

Atomic force microscope

RI:

Refractive index

UBM:

Under bump metallization

VOC:

Volatile organic compounds

NCA:

Nonconductive adhesive

TIM:

Thermal interface materials

ECM:

Electrochemical migration

FT-IR:

Fourier-transform infra red analysis

FWHM:

Full-width half-maximum

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Philips Research, High Tech Campus, Eindhoven, 5656AE, The Netherlands

    J. F. J. M. Caers & X. J. Zhao

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  1. J. F. J. M. Caers
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  2. X. J. Zhao
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Correspondence to J. F. J. M. Caers .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Philips Lighting, Mathildelaan 1, Eindhoven, 5611, Netherlands

    W.D. van Driel

  2. Dept. of Mechanical Eng., Lamar University, Redbird Lane 211, Beaumont, 77710, Texas, USA

    X.J. Fan

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Caers, J.F.J.M., Zhao, X.J. (2013). Failure Modes and Failure Analysis. In: van Driel, W., Fan, X. (eds) Solid State Lighting Reliability. Solid State Lighting Technology and Application Series, vol 1. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3067-4_4

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