μblog: engineering from the trenches

I have been looking at semiconductor reliability handbooks (provided by most semiconductor manufacturers) and have found that Sony has one that is put together very well. Their overview of the reliability problem is on par with textbooks and features nice illustrations. From an integrated circuit design standpoint, the second chapter was the most interesting as it outlined many of the failure mechanisms that occur in modern ICs. This provides insight into design constraints and criteria which can provide higher yield and over-all reliability. The other three chapters are also interesting, however, they focus more on a the process engineering approach.

Why was I looking at these handbooks? I recently read an anonymous insider interview, meaning it might be false, regarding failure rates of Microsoft XBOX360 game consoles. Some individuals put average failure rates at around 20-30% which cannot be acceptable for consumer devices. The insider puts most of the blame on poor thermal management leading to mainboard warping, which then leads to solder joint failures (covered in the Sony handbook). Poor design and haste lead to these problems, and in the end, the incurred losses may have justified pushing back the initial deadline.

( qrhb.pdf )

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