ABSTRACT
As mentioned previously in this book, the objective of electronic packaging is to provide conducting paths for signal distribution and power transmission between the outside world and among internal devices, while providing heat dissipation, mechanical protection, and environmental protection for the internal circuitry [1]. This is a multidisciplinary field requiring aspects of electrical, mechanical, chemical, and materials engineering, with specific emphasis on circuit design, thermal design, structural mechanics, materials selection, and processing. As such, the analysis of failures in electronic systems requires knowledge of each of these areas. For commercial electronics, the continual move toward size and mass reductions, with concomitant increases in power density, performance, and functionality, results in the use of advanced materials and novel technologies that require the reliability analysis of unproven designs. For several extreme environment applications, the selection of technologies and materials is dominated by the challenging requirement of survival, with each of the aforementioned design requirements following. Even materials that have been used in standard electronic packaging applications for decades must be reevaluated due to issues such as diffusion, degradation, and excessive stresses, which result from exposure to extreme temperatures. This chapter will provide a description of failure analysis mechanisms for electronic packaging materials exposed to extreme environments, following a brief introduction to the concepts of reliability, quality assurance, and failure physics.
