| Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff |
| Is "integrated circuit burn-in" a thing? |
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| IDEngineer:
--- Quote from: David Hess on April 24, 2019, 04:47:53 pm --- --- Quote from: IDEngineer on April 23, 2019, 08:59:53 pm ---Is there anything in the industry about IC burn-in? Perhaps specific to MEMS devices in particular? --- End quote --- Burn-in is a very expensive process so only used on parts which can support the cost. --- End quote --- I didn't mean burn-in at the foundry. I meant after assembly. Maybe "conditioning" is a better term... basically some period of time with power applied during which "errors" aren't to be considered fatal, while the component conditions or ages or settles or any number of other similar terms. In discrete electronics this wasn't uncommon, you'd allow freshly assembled units to run with power applied for some number of hours before bothering to calibrate them for the first time (again, to be clear, I'm not talking about warm-up after each power application, I mean the initial application of power). This was because many types of components tended to "drift" at first, then settle into a long term stable condition after being powered up for a while. The amount of change quickly went asymptotic after some number of minutes/hours and then could be relied upon to be stable thereafter even after repeated power cycles. I've never heard of that for IC's, but these parts sure act like it and it would explain what I'm seeing. |
| IDEngineer:
--- Quote from: AndyC_772 on April 24, 2019, 07:44:24 pm ---Even so, burn-in is normally used to detect early failures, not to somehow magically make faulty parts start working. I'm not aware of any physical mechanism which would cause a damaged part to start working just because it's been switched on for a while. --- End quote --- I haven't heard of one either, hence this thread. |
| IDEngineer:
--- Quote from: IDEngineer on April 24, 2019, 03:59:57 am ---Interesting thought on the moisture sensitivity. I wonder if being powered on for a while would bake excess moisture out (for that matter, I wonder if the package is hermetic). If the problem is solely moisture interfering with a good SMT reflow, that is certainly not going to improve with power-on time. I'll confirm with the assembly shop and report back. Thanks! --- End quote --- I received their response: Sealed packages from DigiKey in this case, a reputable supplier. And they didn't notice anything unusual when opening the packages nor loading the reels into the pick-and-place machines either. |
| m98:
I was just about to design an ST accelerometer into a product. Guess I will use an alternative part instead. There is a recovery period for some parts, some hygrometers and gas sensors for example only perform to their specs a week after soldering. |
| SiliconWizard:
Burn-in of active parts for high reliability devices is certainly a thing. It's meant to help getting rid of early failures. In your case, I'd venture there is probably something very wrong that is way beyond the scope of burn-in. Failures in a matter of a couple hours in normal conditions with several devices doesn't look right. So either the batch of ICs you got is all faulty, or your design is? I never saw such a problem with MEMS accelerometers. Admittedly I only ever used AD and TE accelerometers, but ST ones can be found in many mobile devices. You should probably contact ST for support. |
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