Thermal characterization of LDMOS transistors for accelerating stress testing

The time to market is a major concern in the high-technology industry and when designing new products, the development cycle time becomes critical. Indeed, when a delay occurs in the development schedule, the potential market share of the designed product can be drastically decreased. In this context, developing accelerated stress testing (AST) in order to assess quickly the long-term behavior of a semiconductor becomes extremely useful. In this paper we show an example of how thermal characterization including simulation can be used to define a consistent AST for power ICs.