Reliability Challenges for CPU Decoupling MLCC

摘要

Up until recently, failure due to dielectric wear out was not a concern for the capacitors used to support Intel's CPUs. Our reliability models showed that the capacitors could be used for thousands of years. In the last five years we have noticed a disturbing trend; as the capacitance per volume has increased, the long term reliability of the capacitor has been significantly impacted.rnGoing forward we see reliability concerns impacting supplier roadmaps and posing an increased risk for applications using decoupling MLCCs. Many users don't truly understand the risk they are taking because the industry standard Life Test is inadequate for describing the expected reliability of MLCCs. Problems and deficiencies of the standard Life Test will be presented here.