Burn-in & reliability testing
Reliability-screening equipment that stresses parts with heat and voltage over time to weed out early-life failures before they reach customers.
In short
Burn-in and reliability equipment stresses chips — typically with elevated temperature and voltage for a period of time — to force weak parts to fail before shipping. It targets 'infant mortality,' the early-life failures that would otherwise happen in the field.
Why it matters
Some defective parts pass normal test but fail soon after, in use. Reliability screening like burn-in catches these early failures, which is essential for high-reliability applications such as automotive, medical, and data-center parts.
Beginner intuition
A quick test shows a chip works now; burn-in checks that it keeps working by stressing it hard for a while, so the weak ones fail in the factory instead of in the customer's hands.
It is based on the idea that a small fraction of parts fail very early in life — so stress them to reveal those.
Where it fits in manufacturing
In the reliability part of testing, typically after packaging and often combined with electrical test.
How it works
What goes in
- Packaged parts
- Burn-in boards and sockets
- Controlled stress conditions (temperature, voltage, time)
What happens inside
- Load: parts are placed in burn-in boards and an environmental chamber or oven.
- Stress: elevated temperature and voltage are applied for a set time, often while exercising the parts.
- Screen: parts that fail during or after stress are removed; survivors continue.
What comes out
- Reliability-screened parts with early-life failures removed.
Major subsystems
Environmental chamber / oven
Applies and controls temperature stress.
Burn-in boards & sockets
Hold and power many parts under stress.
Stimulus / monitor
Exercises and watches the parts during stress.
Process parameters that matter
- Temperature / voltage
- The stress level applied.
- Duration
- How long the stress is applied.
- Coverage
- How well the stress exercises real failure modes.
- Capacity
- How many parts are screened at once.
A note on numbers
Common issues
What can go wrong:
- Under-stress → early failures slip through
- Over-stress → damage to good parts or wasted life
- Socket or board issues → false results
Yield implications
Reliability screening trades some cost and yield for far lower field-failure rates — critical where failures are costly or dangerous.
Advanced & research
Emerging and research directions, beyond today’s established practice.
- Test-during-burn-in for efficiency
- Statistical and adaptive reliability screening
- Reduced or targeted burn-in guided by data
How this connects
Related process
Related concepts
Related equipment
Packaging connection
Reliability screening protects the quality of finished, packaged parts before they ship.
Packaging →Supply-chain connection
It links to reliability requirements set by end markets (for example automotive) and to specialized burn-in equipment suppliers.
Supply chain →