Automotives are one of the most challenging environments for electronic devices as few applications include as many simultaneous stress superimpositions. Implementation of AEC-Q100/101 (for active components) and AEC-Q200 (for passive components) is challenging because, even if all the single tests pass, three main stress superimpositions influences can lead to reliability failures.

- The superimposition of various stressors at the same time: humidity, vibration, mechanical shock, temperature, bending stress etc…

- Many reliability qualification specifications do not cover stress impact variations; the issue can even be ignored or "forgotten" if components are bought strictly on published catalogue specifications.

- Circuitry and environment interactions between active and passive components can change or degrade passive components and therefore can result in voltage spike generation or damage to the associated active devices.

 

This article is an update and extension of previous publications ([1] and [2]) and includes many new examples of automotive application failures. Due to the interaction between passive and active devices and their stressors, real root cause determination can be very challenging and in many cases it is impossible. A tool called "failure anamnesis" is therefore also included in this review as it shows how to use history, failure signatures, environmental conditions, regional failure occurrences, user profile issues, and more in the failure analysis process to improve root cause findings.