Three terminal voltage regulators. An evaluation of fixed 5V positive voltage regulators. Reliability and stability under various environmental and load conditions

The capability of IC regulators to withstand thermal cycling over a wide range of operating conditions was determined. The dependence of thermal fatigue, as a failure mechanism, on the quality of the die-mounting is verified. Components from four manufacturers, including seven variants, were tested for different properties, i.e., change in power dissipation (power cycling), high temperature reverse bias, high temperature storage life, temperature cycling (zero voltage), and steady state operating life. Power cycling was for 24,000 cycles while test duration for the remaining tests was 1000 hr each. A total of 450 devices (five types of encapsulation) were tested, resulting in 12 failures. Four of the seven variants, including two low current ones, have no failures. All variants except one appear to have reasonable or even excellent performance. The weak variant shows poor power cycling performance as well as failures during temperature cycling and poor steady state operating life.