Historically, reliability testing in many cases was the quiet final step in building a semiconductor, something that happened after design work was finished. That is changing fast. As chips move into more places where failure is expensive or dangerous, from AI data centers to electric vehicles, making sure a chip works for its full intended life has become a front-of-mind concern and continues to shift left in the development cycle. Reliability is turning into a deeper and broader requirement, and what counts as “reliable enough” depends heavily on where the chip is headed.
The clearest driver is buildout of AI infrastructure. These systems pack many costly chips together, run them hot, and cannot tolerate downtime. Reliability at the chip and packaging level matters more than ever, with mechanical and packaging engineering becoming central to data center dependability. At the same time, in the operational technology space, semiconductor content is ramping in areas like electrification and driver assistance, where a chip failure is a safety issue rather than an inconvenience or operational drawback.
Not every chip is held to the same bar, and that spread is the heart of the story. A commercial chip might be rated for 0 to 85 degrees C, a two to three year life, and a few hundred defective parts per million. Meanwhile, an automotive chip under the AEC-Q100 standard has to survive minus 40 to 150 degrees C and last 10 to 15 years, with the broader industry pushing toward zero defects. Aerospace and defense sits alongside automotive at the demanding end with further requirement for radiation and extended temperature operation. There are also many computing applications in the middle between these extremes such as for energy, industrial, medical, and transportation deployments.
A range of solutions helps meet reliability needs, from design and qualification standards through testing and screening. This is where leading organizations like Advantest, Aehr, MCC, and Teradyne come in. Advantest and Teradyne are both prominent suppliers of ATE and SLT platforms that test devices in application-like environments. Burn-in testing, which subjects semiconductor devices to prolonged electrical operation under elevated temperatures with dedicated chambers and solutions from specialists like Aehr and MCC, is expanding for both front-end HTOL and production screening. A variety of tools are needed for solving modern reliability requirements.
Reliability has moved from a checkbox to a core component of product strategy. Overall, semiconductor devices are becoming more complex, dense, and power hungry as data center and edge computing use cases evolve. For chipmakers and OEMs, reliability and the associated testing workflows are becoming critical to address a variety of emerging, high-growth market segments and application areas.
