CASE STUDIES — Failure Mode Effects Analysis: Semiconductor Package

One of the many valued services IST provides to our customers includes an independent audit of new product concepts or autopsical examinations of already established products and processes. In this instance, our client was one of the fastest growing start-up companies in Silicon Valley. They operate on the leading edge of the technology envelope on extremely aggressive projects and schedules. Their core competency in semiconductor technologies and packaging techniques is unsurpassed. However, as a start-up, many of the formal checks and balances built into a mature engineering documentation system were nonexistent. Consequently, when they experienced catastrophic failures on a recently introduced product, they lacked the formal procedures necessary to identify the failure mechanisms or to develop an effective remedy.

IST was able to fill the void. We were contracted to write a formal procedure and create the documentation required to conduct an autopsical examination of the already established product and processes. A formal design review and a failure mode effects analysis (FMEA) was performed on-site with the customer’s staff. Over the course of this examination we were able to identify several key areas which contributed to the product failures. In all instances we discovered a disconnect between the design intent, the documentation, and the manufacturing process selected as the means of fabrication. IST developed a plan of attack which included a series of corrective actions. Methods and requisites were also created and incorporated into a standard tool that our customer would use time and again on future product introductions.

Technical Skills

  • Intimate knowledge of industry, equipment, and application engineering
  • FMEA process, and Cp and Cpk Analysis
  • Electronic Contact Physics
  • Electro-mechanical engineering principles
  • Injection molding processes
  • Assembly methodology
  • Materials Treatments and Finishes
  • Technical Writing & Report Generation

ist gets it done!