Abstract: An IC device is packaged for accelerated transient particle emission by doping the underfill thereof with a transient-particle-emitting material having a predetermined, substantially constant emission rate. The emission rate may be tunable. In one aspect, a radioactive adhesive composition is provided for bonding a semiconductor device to a chip carrier. The radioactive adhesive composition is made from a cured reaction product including a resin and a filler, and may be reworkable or non-reworkable. Either the resin or the filler, individually or both together as a mix, are doped substantially uniformly with the transient-particle-emitting material, thereby putting the transient-particle-emitting in close proximity with the IC to be tested. The underfill is formulated to have a stable chemistry, and the doped particles are encapsulated, so as to contain the emissions. Accelerated transient-particle-emission testing may then be performed on the IC in situ to provide accelerated detection of soft errors.

Abstract: A method and system are provided for accelerated detection of soft error rates (SER) in integrated circuits (IC's) due to transient particle emission. An integrated circuit is packaged for accelerated transient particle emission by doping the underfill thereof with a transient-particle-emitting material having a predetermined emission rate. The emission rate is substantially constant over a predetermined period of time for testing. Accelerated transient-particle-emission testing is performed on the integrated circuit. Single-event upsets due to soft errors are detected, and a quantitative measurement of SER is determined.