Prognostic approaches for the wirebond failure prediction in power semiconductors: A case study using DPAK package

Reliability of the standard DPAK component under passive temperature cycling as well as combined passive and active temperature cycling is investigated. A special test vehicle is designed to mount six DPAK components with various orientations on a PCB. The stress state during the passive temperature cycling is monitored using three IForce piezoresistive stress sensors mounted on one side of the PCB. In addition, three temperature sensors are used for in-situ temperature measurement, which is critically required for active operation of the designed test vehicle during active power cycling and/or field condition tests. In this paper, only the results of the passive temperature cycling are presented. Based on the preliminary results, a relation between the damage evolution and the failure of the DPAK can be established, which offers a potential application of using the IForce sensor as a canary device for Prognostics and health management.