Evaluation of CSAM for Plastic-Encapsulated Microcircuit Dormant Storage Testing

Rigorous environmental testing, with C-mode scanning acoustic microscopy (CSAM) inspection, was imposed on a sizeable set of exemplary commercial off-the-shelf plastic encapsulated microcircuits (PEMs) to demonstrate their suitability for dormant storage over extensive periods of time. After qualification testing of over 4800 samples of 39 standard manufacturer (mfr) part numbers from 18 world-class mfrs in 25 widely different PEM package types, indications of product discrepancies by CSAM were largely discounted based upon device reliability testing, including physical cross sectioning.