Reliability Estimation and Failure Analysis of Multilayer Ceramic Chip Capacitors

This paper presents the failure analysis and the reliability estimation of a multilayer ceramic chip capacitor. For the failed samples used in an automobile engine control unit, failure analysis was made to identify the root cause of failure and it was shown that the migration and the avalanche breakdown were the dominant failure mechanisms. Next, an accelerated life testing was designed to estimate the life of the MLCC. It is assumed that Weibull lifetime distribution and the life-stress relationship proposed Prokopowicz and Vaskas. The life-stress relationship and the acceleration factor are estimated by analyzing the accelerated life test data.