Importance is increasingly being attached to the early detection of ageing processes in electrical components and the like, such as resistances in thin- or thick-film techniques, YBaCuO films or other ceramic (superconducting) layers, Cu and Al wires or alloys thereof used when bonding I.Cs., Al, Au and Cu interconnections, flip-chip and bump connections, amorphous metal alloys, quasi crystals and/or soldered (Pb/Si) melting fuses, etc.

For the accelerated ageing of such elements with an electromagnetic ageing parameter (DC or AC impedance, a mag¬ netic property, such as the shape of the hysteresis curve etc.) , they are exposed according to the state of the art for a predetermined time to a predetermined, raised tempera¬ ture, whereafter the change in impedance of such an element is determined, from which prognoses can be made as to the useful life that can be expected of such electrical compo¬ nents.

Because of the time-consuming character of placing such an element with ageing parameters in an environment with raised temperature, such as an oven, and subsequently measuring the changed parameter, whereafter this cycle is repeated, the above stated method is disadvantageous parti¬ cularly for systems wherein a small change of the parameters occurs. With the known method the measurement error amounts to for instance 100 ppm; an ageing to 10,000 ppm is then necessary, if predictions on the basis of extrapolations of the change in the parameter are to be made with any reliabi¬ lity. Measuring wires, such as current and voltage wires have to be connected and disconnected again each time, while a little time is necessary in each case to reach a determi¬ ned stability and temperature. The instability of the tempe-

rature when switching on and off moreover causes inaccura¬ cies in such measurements. Such measurements are carried out under various conditions:

- in He atmosphere; - in air;

- in polluted air, of particular importance for sensors for determining the degree of air pollution;

- in 0 ₂ atmosphere; or

- in an atmosphere of moistened air. The present invention has for its object to provide a method which forms an improvement to the above stated method, in the sense that accelerated ageing can be carried out with greater reliability, with greater resolution and/or within a shorter time. The greater resolution can only be realized using a very stable oven, so that the changes of the electromagnetic quantity to be determined as a result of temperature fluctu¬ ations are negligible relative to the changes as a result of the ageing phenomena which occur in the component under examination.

The very stable oven temperature coupled with a high resolution of the measuring equipment permits distinguishing of the physical processes forming the basis of the ageing phenomena. The method furthermore has the advantage that it can be used as a non-destructive test, and optionally as produc¬ tion or quality control.

The present invention provides a method as claimed in claim 1. The present invention further provides a device for performing said method.

Further features, details and advantages of the present invention will be elucidated in the light of a des¬ cription of preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the annexed drawings, in which: figure 1 shows a perspective view of a first prefer¬ red embodiment of a device according to the present inven-

tion; figure 2 shows a graph for elucidation of a prefer¬ red embodiment of the method according to the present inven¬ tion; and 5 figure 3 shows a second preferred embodiment of the device according to the present invention.

A substantially tubular oven 1 comprises a stainless steel wall 2 (thickness approximately 0.38 mm) around which is wound a chrome vanadium wire 3 with a coating of quartz. 0 Because of the thin wall and the quartz coating of the chrome vanadium wire (such a wire exhibits a small tempera¬ ture dependence) a rapid control of the temperature in the interior of the tubular oven 1 is possible. Disposed in the tubular oven 1 is a holder 4 on which is situated an element 5 with ageing parameter 5, which in the embodiment shown is a housing for an integrated circuit. The bundled connecting wires 7 are guided through a flange 6, wherein these wires are fed through integrally without being broken and are bonded in Araldite adhesive. Arranged in the end flange 9 is 0 a temperature sensor 8 for measuring the internal temperatu¬ re in the tubular oven. An inert gas, air or oxygen can be admitted into the tubular oven.

Using the resistor 3 the temperature in the oven 1 is for instance first brought to 50°C (fig. 2) , wherein in 5 this embodiment a measurement is performed on the resistance value of the element 5. In addition, a series of measure¬ ments are made at temperature T.,, which can amount for in¬ stance to 260°C (see embodiment of fig. 3) or 800-1,000°C (fig. 2) , whereafter during cooling a measurement is again

30 made at 50°C.

A tubular oven 13 (fig. 3) is provided with a bifi- lar winding resistance wire 14 to further increase the speed regulation of the temperature prevailing in the tubular oven 13. This temperature is measured with a temperature sensor

35 15 disposed close to a holder 16 for an element with resis¬ tance value 17 - in a manner not shown, but preferably clamped fixedly thereon - and preferably comprises a Pt-100

resistor which produces a more accurate measurement of a thermocouple. Also coupled with the tubular oven 13 (with a wall thickness of 0.25 mm) is a water reservoir 18 as well as an evaporating unit 20 provided with a resistance wire 19. A gas can further be carried into the tubular oven 13 via a supply 21. A gas discharge 22 is provided with a gas water bottle 23 in order to maintain pressure in the oven and keep the mass flow of the gas constant in a simple manner. A different mass flow meter can of course also be used therefor.

The schematically indicated connecting wires 24 for the component, in this embodiment with a resistance value, are coupled via a multiplexer 25 to a digital multimeter 26 with a control unit 27 such as a personal computer. This is in turn coupled via a control unit 28 to supplies 29, 30 and 31, which are respectively for supplying the resistance wire 14, for a front oven 32 arranged in the present embodiment which is provided with connections 33 for sensing, and for the evaporating unit 20. In the front oven 32 (provided in a manner not shown with a temperature and humidity sensor) an air atmosphere of 85% humidity at 85°C is usually developed in order to comply for instance with prescribed conditions.

The connecting wires 24 are preferably insulated with a kapton covering in the embodiment shown in figure 3 (temperature approximately 260°C), but at higher temperatu¬ res (800-1,000°C) these will usually be arranged without insulation or with quartz coating. Four wires are typically used per measurement (four-point measurement, 2 current wires and 2 voltage wires) .

If the temperature in the space in which the above described preferred embodiment of the method according to the present invention is performed varies only relatively slowly (for instance less than l°C/hour), such as for in- stance in a non-conditioned space, the oven temperature can be regulated with an accuracy of 0.001°C.

Thermo-electric potential is preferably avoided as

far as possible (for instance < 10μV/°C) . Preferably wires are connected with clamp connections, while the multiplexing unit is provided with relays and coils, wherein the thermo¬ electric voltages amount to less than lμV/10°C. The arrangement schematically indicated in figure 3 preferably includes an algorithm which prevents measurements being made on the element with ageing parameter when too great a deviation of the temperature measured by the sensors occurs. The control for the supply voltages does not react to such possibly erroneous measurements, whereby a more stable control is obtained. A newly read value for the temperature is compared for this purpose with the average of the three previous temperature values in the oven.

Because of the extreme temperature stability of the above described preferred embodiment of the present inventi¬ on, measurements can be performed with high resolution, for instance within 5-100 ppm of the total quantity to be measu¬ red; a prediction of the ageing process on the basis of ex¬ trapolations of the measured values are thus possible .within a reasonable measuring time (for instance 100-1,000 hours), while a better insight is obtained into the functionality of the underlying physical processes.

Although the above described embodiments relate to ageing processes of an element with DC resistance values, the present invention according to the annexed claims can also be applied to capacitance (or induction) measurements and/or other electromagnetic quantities and additionally under various types of load, such as:

- mechanical tensile strain (off-chip connections) ; - current load (for the purpose of studies into electron migration) , etc.