Analysis and Measurement of the Propagation of FTB Stress in an Integrated Circuit

The reliability of microcontrollers (MCUs) became crucial considering their massive use in numerous applications, especially in severe environments. Thus, the robustness against electromagnetic disturbances, particularly for the power supply network, is a major issue that we have to solve in order to acquire a comparative advantage on the market, or simply to assure the goods and people safety. Therefore, the fast transient burst test of integrated circuits is studied in relation with the IEC 61000-4-4 standard. The stress propagation mechanisms are highlighted, as well as the common-mode-to-differential-mode conversion. A novel measurement method was developed to validate this conversion. Finally, this paper opens new perspectives of improvement of the MCU robustness, such as package modification, for this kind of aggression, and thus their reliability.