JEDEC Publication No. 193
-i-
SURVEY ON LATCH-UP TESTING PRACTICES AND
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVEMENTS
Contents
Page
1 Scope ......................................................................................................................................... 1
2 References ................................................................................................................................ 1
3 Terms and Definitions ............................................................................................................. 2
4 Latch-Up Characterization ..................................................................................................... 4
4.1 Short Introduction to Latch-Up and Standards Timeline .......................................................... 4
4.2 Survey Report Organization ...................................................................................................... 6
5 Detailed Analysis of the Survey .............................................................................................. 8
5.1 Affiliation and Background ....................................................................................................... 8
5.1.1 Demographics and Response Numbers ..................................................................................... 8
5.1.2 Distribution Over Type of Market Space/Business/Application ............................................. 10
5.1.3 Familiarity of the Industry Community Concerning the Different Aspects of Latch-Up
Testing According to JESD78 ................................................................................................. 12
5.2 Case Studies and Field Returns ............................................................................................... 15
5.2.1 Failure Rates ............................................................................................................................ 16
5.2.2 Latch-up Testing vs. Real-World Latch-up Failure Scenarios ................................................ 18
5.2.3 Experience of the Semiconductor Industry Concerning the Amount and Frequency of Latch-
up Failures and their Root Cause ............................................................................................. 20
5.2.3.1 Further Observations and Implications for the Case Where Participants in the Questionnaire
Indicated That They Have Had or Had Not to Deal with Latch-Up Faults at All. .................. 24
5.2.4 Qualification vs. Real Life ...................................................................................................... 27
5.3 Goal and Testing Strategy ....................................................................................................... 28
5.3.1 Customer Complaints .............................................................................................................. 29
5.3.2 Expectations and Usefulness ................................................................................................... 34
5.3.3 Robustness in the Field ............................................................................................................ 40
5.3.4 Discussion................................................................................................................................ 43
5.3.5 Future ....................................................................................................................................... 43
5.4 Next Steps of Latch-up Testing ............................................................................................... 45
5.4.1 Types of Latch-Up Tests Performed by the Industry .............................................................. 45
5.4.2 Failure Criteria and Maximum Stress Voltage (“MSV”) ........................................................ 48
5.4.3 Injection Levels and Low-voltage Pins ................................................................................... 49
5.4.4 Application Specific Execution ............................................................................................... 51
5.5 Reporting and Design Rules .................................................................................................... 52
5.5.1 Reporting ................................................................................................................................. 52
5.5.2 Design Rule Relationship to JESD78 ...................................................................................... 54
5.6 Test Execution Details ............................................................................................................. 56
5.6.1 Scope of Latch-up Standards ................................................................................................... 57
5.6.2 Testing Specification ............................................................................................................... 58
5.6.3 How is the Latch-up Testing Executed .................................................................................... 61
5.6.4 Beyond the Specification ......................................................................................................... 62
5.7 Maximum Stress Voltage (MSV) ............................................................................................ 67
5.7.1 How Industry Interprets MSV vs. AMR to Qualify a Proper Latch-Up Stress ....................... 67
5.8 Failure Criteria......................................................................................................................... 71
5.9 Concluding Questions ............................................................................................................. 73
6 Conclusions and Recommendations..................................................................................... 78
6.1 How Did the Survey Team Come to Their Conclusions and Recommendations? .................. 78
6.2 Conclusions from the Analysis ................................................................................................ 78
