Fraunhofer IZM lived up to its name at this year's SMT in Nuremburg. The IZM booth was all about reliability, with the institute presenting its many and varied skills and know-how in reliability and damage analysis for microelectronic systems.

Environmental stress on electronic systems can lead to failure in the field as a result of aging mechanisms and overloading. Using combined accelerated reliability tests, these stresses can be simulated under laboratory conditions with an accuracy that approximates real conditions. One highlight in this area was the new Fraunhofer IZM Electronics Condition Monitoring Labor (ECMLab), which features all the latest laboratory equipment for such accelerated combined lifecycle testing of electronic systems. The event organized by IZM staff on this topic was one of the conferences most popular presentations and many visitors to the booth were keen to find out more about IZM's services in this area.

Wire bonding, an old favorite, was also a hot topic for many visitors. Apart from the conventional topics of wedge/wedge and ball/wedge bonding, new questions were discussed, including thick-wire bonding reliability. Here, IZM scientists presented their expertise in reliability testing of thick-wire bonds on power semiconductors using an Active Power Cycling testing station.

Other topics included:

• New packaging concepts for power electronics, two-dimensional soldering and wire bonding for power modules
• Damage analysis for circuit boards and interconnects; simulation
• Flexible systems (polytronic, large-area electronics, thin-chip AIT)
• 3D on wafer-level, package stacking, embedding technologies
• Photonic system integration

Fears that the critical economic situation would result in fewer visitors proved to be unfounded. Georg Weigelt, Head of Fraunhofer IZM Public Relations, judged the event a success: We had almost 20% more enquiries than last year".