This book concentrates on the quality of electronic products. Electronics in general, including semiconductor technology and software, has become the key technology for wide areas of industrial production. In nearly all expanding branches of industry electronics, especially digital electronics, is involved. And the spread of electronic technology has not yet come to an end. This rapid development, coupled with growing competition and the shorter innovation cycle, have caused economic problems which tend to have adverse effects on quality. Therefore, good quality at low cost is a very attractive goal in industry today. The demand for better quality continues along with a demand for more studies in quality assurance. At the same time, many companies are experiencing a drop in profits just when better quality of their products is essential in order to survive against the competition. There have been many proposals in the past to improve quality without increase in cost, or to reduce cost for quality assurance without loss of quality. This book tries to summarize the practical content of many of these proposals and to give some advice, above all to the designer and manufacturer of electronic devices. It mainly addresses practically minded engineers and managers. It is probably of less interest to pure scientists. The book covers all aspects of quality assurance of components used in electronic devices. Integrated circuits (lCs) are considered to be the most important components because the degree of integration is still rising.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction.- 2. Integrated quality assurance.- 2.1 Quality culture.- 2.2 Quality assurance in the initial phase.- 2.3 Quality assurance in the project phase.- 2.4 Quality assurance during the design phase.- 2.5 Quality assurance in the prototype and early production phase.- 2.6 Quality assurance in the production phase.- 2.7 The way to lower cost.- 3. Joint evaluation of all components.- 3.1 Evaluation, an important aspect of quality assurance.- 3.2 Evaluation survey and information system.- 4. Functional and electrical evaluation of digital ICs.- 4.1 Logic function.- 4.2 Static characteristics.- 4.3 Dynamic characteristics.- 4.4 Evaluation by automatic test systems.- 4.5 Special electrical parameters.- 4.6 Evaluation of standard LSI and VLSI circuits.- 4.7 Electrical evaluation of asics.- 4.8 Electrical evaluation of memories.- 4.9 Evaluation of ECL circuits.- 4.10 Evaluation of passive components, discrete semiconductors and analogue ICs.- 4.11 Subcontractors (OEM).- 4.12 Final remarks on electrical evaluation.- 5. Reliability and environmental requirements.- 5.1 Reliability evaluation.- 5.2 Reliability tests.- 5.3 ESD sensitivity.- 5.4 Latch-up effect.- 5.5 Soft errors.- 5.6 Preconditioning (burn-in).- 5.7 Wear-out.- 5.8 Technological evaluation.- 5.9 Mechanical characteristics.- 5.10 Customer audits at vendor’s site.- 5.11 Cost and benefits of evaluation.- 6. Quality assurance in the production phase.- 6.1 General considerations.- 6.2 Quality management.- 6.3 Traceability.- 6.4 Incoming inspection.- 6.5 Board test strategy.- 6.6 Module test.- 6.7 Final or end test.- 6.8 Service and maintenance.- 6.9 Failure analysis.- 6.10 Correlation with the vendor to reduce failure rate.- 6.11 Failure prevention.- 6.12 Process changes.- 6.13 Achieved cost reduction.- 7.Design for quality, the key to good quality at low cost.- 8. Specifications and standards as a basis for co-operation.- 8.1 Purpose and procedure of specifying.- 8.2 General quality specification.- 8.3 Family specification.- 8.4 Part specification.- 8.5 Purchase contract.- 8.6 Agreement on the quality assurance (ship-to-stock contract).- 8.7 ISO 9000 certification.- Appendices.- A: Propagation of signals and crosstalk on interconnection lines.- B: Evaluation test program.- C: Calculation of failure rate ?.- D: Reliability questionnaire.- E: Check-list for comparing ATE testers.- F: Principles of test software generation for ICs of high complexity.- G: Shielding effectiveness of a cable connection.- H: Agreement on quality assurance between purchaser and supplier.- I: General quality specification.- Further reading.