Making a product work is one thing. But how can you make sure it will keep working throughout its intended lifetime?
Last week, in a joint visit together with IMPRS-QST, and MCQST, the IMPRS-APS doctoral candidates got a glimpse into reliability testing and failure analysis at Infineon Technologies’ largest global R&D site, the Campeon campus in Neubiberg.
After a general introduction to Infineon’s products and their applications, our researchers delved deeper via presentations and lab visits to the reliability and failure analysis lab.
To ensure their chips work reliably, Infineon subjects them to accelerated stress tests, e.g., by applying high voltages or placing them in an oven for several hours. When damage appears, these chips are handed over to failure analysis, where people like our alumna Sonja Tauchert use a variety of methods, from optical analysis and electronic measurements to electron microscopy, to figure out what went wrong. Sonja explained that this work can feel like detective work - combining clues to find the culprit.
We were very happy to receive these insights from one of our former PhD students, as it’s always great to hear about the experiences firsthand. After the lab tours, our researchers had the opportunity to further exchange with the Infineon employees over lunch.
Thanks to our IMPRS-APS coordinator Sibylle Graf for organizing the visit, and for everyone involved at Infineon for welcoming us and showing us around!
Photo: Nina Beier
