ENVIRONMENTAL STRESS SCREENING

VINOD KUMAR
RCMA Korwa
vinodkorwa@gmail.com
What is ESS?
ESS is a Product Development Process which involves
the precipitation and detection of latent defects by
applying accelerated stressed.

It expose defects that can not be detected by visual

inspection or electrical testing in order to eliminate
infant-mortality cases so that the product is in the
useful-life phase of the bathtub curve at the end of ESS
testing.

LATENT DEFECT ESS PATENT DEFECT

Bath tub curve
Failure Rate

Constant Failure
Rate Region

Early Life Wear-Out

Region Region

0 Time t
Latent Defect
Latent defects are flaws that are not readily apparent-
not identifiable through conventional testing- but with
time it can precipitate product failure. Latent defects
generally leads to failure early in the products life.

Source of Latent Defect

DEFECTIVE COMPONENTS

WORKMANSHIP ERROR

PROCESS STRESS
When to do ESS
TRANSFER OF
TECHNOLOGY

REPEAT TYPE
TESTING

FAI

PRODUCT QUALIFICATION PRODUCTION

DEVELOPMENT TESTING

ESS DELIVERY
Benefit of doing ESS before QT.
Provides design technology edge over competition in
world markets

Discovers and allows correction of weaknesses in design

during prototype phase prior to pre production phase

Helps passing design specification qualification tests first

time

Reduces design cycle time and speeds corrective action for

design and process problems

Increases robustness of design

Essence of ESS Program
Failures are expected, normal and unavoidable.

An optimum level of stress must be applied to the

product to force defects into failure.

The stress environment must not exceed the

electrical or mechanical limits of the product,
forcing needless failure or reducing the products
useful life.
Failure modes which ESS detects.

PARAMETER DRIFTS
PCB SHORTS AND OPEN
INCORRECT PART INSTALLATION
WRONG PART INSTALLATION
CONTAMINATED PART
HERMETIC SEAL FAILURE
FOREIGN MATERIAL CONTAMINATION
COLD SOLDER JOINTS
DEFECTIVE PARTS.
ESS Screens
Random Vibration Altitude

Thermal Cycling High Temperature

Electrical Stress
ESS Thermal Shock
STRESS
SCREEN
Low Temperature Sine Vibration

Humidity Acceleration
Which is the most effective Screen for ESS
Which is the most effective Screen for ESS
FINDING DEFECTS

THERMAL VIBRATION
SCREEN SCREEN

Wrong Component
Improperly installed Mixed Assembly
component Defects
Wire insulation Two Components
Shortings
Defective Harness
Termination Loose Contact
Component Mechanical Flaws
Parameter Drift Poorly bonded
Hermetic Seal components
failure Loose hardware
Conformal Coating Chafed, Pinched wire
Weak Components Loose connectors
No solder joints in Weak Switches
IC through Hole
MOST PREFERRED METHODS OF ESS

BURN IN

THERMAL CYCLING

RANDOM VIBRATION
BURN-IN

According to MIL-STD-883C, Burn-in is a test

performed for the purpose of screening or
eliminating marginal devices.

Marginal devices are those with inherent defects or

defects resulting from manufacturing aberrations
which cause time and stress dependent failures.
BURN-IN
Based on Arrhenius Reaction rate model relies on the
premise that defects, like many chemical reactions, have
an energy threshold that must be exceeded before the
reaction can occur. Also, like chemical reactions, when
the applied energy level is increased, the speed of the
reaction is also increased. For constant temperature burn-
in, the magnitude of the temperature is expected to have a
direct affect on the speed of defect precipitation.
THERMAL CYCLING
THERMAL CYCLING: VARIABLES

DWELL TIME

MULTIPLE CYCLES

TEMPERATURE EXTREMES
RANDOM VIBRATION
ESS EFFECTIVENESS
MIL 2164 ESS PROFILE

PRE RANDOM VIBRATION

(5MINUTE, ALL THREE AXIS, UNIT ON)

THERMAL CYCLING
(10 CYCLES, 02 DEFECT FREE CYCLE)

POST RANDOM VIBRATION

(5MINUTE, ALL THREE AXIS, UNIT ON)
WHAT ALL WE NEED TO PERFORM ESS

ESS PROFILE PRODUCT

ELECTRONICS

CHAMBER INSTRUMENTATIO
N

AIR FLOW PRODUCT INTERCONNECTS

FIXTURE COMPUTER
CONTROL

POWER SUPPLY MATERIAL

HANDLING
Benefits of Correct ESS

Reduce field repair expense

Fewer defects and waste
Early detection of flaws
Improved production efficiency
Lower unit costs
Increased product value
Improved customer satisfaction
Better ROI.
Current Approaches of ESS
HALT

Highly Accelerated Life Testing [Engineering Development]

Separate High/Low Temperature Operation
Separate Vibration Step Stressing
Combined Vibration and Thermal Cycling

HASS

Highly Accelerated Stress Screening [Production Application]

Combined Vibration and Thermal Cycling,
2 to 5 Hours Per Process Run
Highly Accelerated Life test
HALT: Term coined by Dr. Gregg K Hobbs.
Step stress process performed during the products
prototype phase.
Determines product operating limits and destruction
limits.
Stimulate normal-use failure modes by subjecting the test
article to multiple high level stress simultaneously.
This is a design improvement test method, not a
qualification test method.
HALT is not a pass/fail test but a process of discovery and
design optimisation.
Root cause of failures must be identified and corrected to
form a stronger, robust product.
HALT precipitated defect by stress environment
HALT vs Traditional Methods

Product #1 - Product #2 -
HALT Process Traditional Methods
3-5 days to complete 7 months to complete

1 integrated test chamber Misc test chambers

3 test specimens 2 test specimens

Conclusion: HALT provided faster time to market (reduction in

test time), reduced engineering costs, and better results than
traditional testing methodologies.

Information from United Technologies Presentation

by Ronald Horrell, Chief of Reliability
HALT Thermal Step Stress
HALT Random Vibration Stress
When Failure Occurs during HALT

Stop test & record failure mode and stress level.

Use isolation techniques to identify failure

location.

Go for root cause analysis.

Continue testing to try to induce additional failure

till multiple failures occurs.
HALT and HASS linkage

HASS
Highly Accelerated Stress Screen

A process used in
HALT Knowledge manufacturing, to allow
discovery of process
changes and prevent
products with latent defects
from getting into the field.
HASS Goal

HASS goal is to use enough stress

to find faults- but not enough to
remove a significant amount of
products life.
HASS precipitated defect by stress environment
HALT and HASS Benefits

Quickly discover design & process flaws.

Evaluate & improve design margins.
Reduce development time & cost.
Eliminate design problems before release to
manufacturing.
Ship a mature product at market introduction.
Use as a sustaining engineering tool to evaluate
impact of product modifications and cost
reductions.
 DOCUMENTS & STANDARDS
STANDARD TITLE
MIL-STD-2164 Environmental stress screening process for
electronic equipments.
MIL-HDBK-344A Environmental stress screening for electronic
equipments.
JSS 55555 Environmental Testing Specification/ Standards.
MIL-STD-781D Reliability testing for Engineering development,
qualification and production
MIL-STD-883E Test method standard microcircuits.
MIL-STD-785B Reliability program for systems and equipment
development and production.
Thank you