The Detection of Cracks in Ceramic Packages by Vapor Condensation

This paper details a novel approach to the detection of cracks in ceramic semiconductor packages. The technique is extremely fast and has been designed to be a cost effective method of performing crack detection for high volume production applications as well as for traditional failure analysis. The test does not require any special lighting nor any optical magnification. It is capable of detecting cracks as fine as one-tenth of a micron in width. Although developed for a specific situation, the test may be useful for a wide variety of other applications.