WHY USE PEMS IN MILITARY EQUIPMENT - USERS RESPONSE

Since the early 1980s. with significant improvement in plastic packagi ng of microcircuits, accelerated environmental testing has indicated c ontinuous reliability improvements. These data have beer, generated by independent researchers, Universities, users and suppliers. The quest ion which still remains concerns their use in high reliability applica tions for extended periods in harsh environments. Such applications wo uld be in the military, automotive, and commercial airline markets. Th is report is the result of responses to a survey directed at military equipment developers. Its goal was to determine advantages and disadva ntages in the use of commercial plastic encapsulated microcircuits (PE Ms) versus the use of MIL approved microcircuits as received by the eq uipment manufacturer. Responses, however. impacted all three markets, not only military. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rig hts reserved.