Plastic ICs for military equipment cost reduction challenge and feasibility demonstration

The authors describe the strategy and the main results of the first phase of a program whose goal is to introduce PICs (plastic integrated circuits) in certain types of military equipment. The first phase of the French Ministry of Defense´s Plastic Component Plan (PCP) has demonstrated the realistic applicability of PICs in military equipment. During the test program, PICs have been able to survive in very severe environmental conditions (such as HAST, or highly accelerated stress test). Failure mechanisms are not related to corrosion alone, and it is obvious that package integrity is a key factor for achieving good component reliability. In addition, a close relationship between package and soldering process for SMDs (surface mounting devices) dictates the need to define a new military standard which takes into account the specificity of plastic SMDs and user constraints