Reliability Prediction of Silicon Bipolar Transistors by Means of Noise Measurements

TLDR: In this paper, the results of theoretical and experimental investigations on flicker and burst noise are used in order to point out the relation between excess noise and the internal properties of the transistors.

Abstract: The results of theoretical and experimental investigations on flicker-and burst noise are used in order to point out the relation between excess noise and the internal properties of the transistors. Noise is show to be a good means of characterization of the surface parameters. A HTRB step stress test and a complementary long time storage are described. It emerges from the results that previous excess noisemeasurements give a good prediction of the failures and that noisiness is a very sensitive degradation parameter, the increase of which can be, sometimes, the only indicator of an imminent failure. A screening method is deduced.