NOISE AS A DIAGNOSTIC-TOOL FOR QUALITY AND RELIABILITY OF ELECTRONIC DEVICES

Experimental facts about noise are presented which help us to understa nd the correlation between noise in a device and its reliability. The main advantages of noise measurements are that the tests are less dest ructive, faster and more sensitive than dc measurements after accelera ted life tests. The following topics will be addressed: 1) The kind of noise spectra in view of reliability diagnostics such as thermal nois e, shot noise, the typical poor-device indicators like burst noise and generation-recombination noise and the 1/f2 and 1/f noise. 2) Why con duction noise is a quality indicator, 3) the quality of electrical con tacts and vias, 4) electromigration damage, 5) the reliability in diod e type devices like solar cell, laser diode, and bipolar transistors, and 6) the series resistance in modern short channel MESFET, MODFET, a nd MOST devices.