A transient thermal characterisation technique for monitoring structural degradation in microelectronic components will be presented. This destructive package quality evaluation technique is based on indirect transient temperature response measurements and can be used to determine both the existence and location of structural defects in packaged semiconductor devices. The effect of package thermal properties on the transient temperature response is first investigated by means of finite element analysis. Practical thermal impedance measurements on a hybrid test structure and a 48-lead TSSOP illustrate the capabilities of the transient measurement technique with respect to failure characterisation in microelectronic packages. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd
