Low Temperature Reliability of Electronic Packages/Assemblies for Space Missions

A NASA-wide team, funded under the NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging Program (NEPP), was formed to collaborate and to establish reliability of various electronic parts/packaging and assemblies for operation under extreme cold temperatures. One of the primary objectives of the NEPP is to expedite the infusion of cutting edge technologies into the present and future NASA missions. Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) emerging electronic parts/packages due to their lower weight, increased functionality, and lower cost are excellent candidates for space missions if they are characterized to show that they will meet the stringent reliability and quality requirements. Characterizations, especially for the extreme cold temperatures, are required since very limited data are available by manufacturers or users. For severe military environments, the temperature conditions to -65 C are the lowest temperature for which these parts/packages and assemblies are qualified. New data beyond this relatively benign cold temperature are required for numerous NASA missions. Several parts/packages, based on the project recommendation for their immediate and future needs, were selected for detailed characterization to cold temperature regimes down to liquid nitrogen (-196 C), covering both Mars cold temperature (-125 C) and asteroid (- 180 C) lander environmental requirements. Numerous parts/packages and assemblies were characterized during extreme temperature environmental tests. Several electrical parameters were characterized at discrete temperatures to -185 C to determine if they remain within their specification ranges. Both packages and circuit boards were subjected to nondestructive testing including optical, X-ray, and acoustic microscopy to document their integrity prior to environment exposure. Package/board assemblies were also subjected to X-ray to characterize solder joint integrity including void levels. Both parts and assemblies were subjected to thermal cycling with a large temperature swing enveloping numerous NASA missions. Details of the performed tests and the results obtained are presented.