Plastic packaging is highly reliable

Plastic encapsulation is now a high reliability (HiRel) method of packaging active semiconductor devices and microelectronics in general. This paper shows that the traditional requirement for hermetic packaging can be overturned in favor of plastic packaging, on the following grounds: the full range of laboratory evidence of HiRel silicone junction coated IC undertaken by many researchers, showing that plastic encapsulations can now be used for microelectronics and optoelectronics in telecommunication, automotive, military and space applications as the better option in many instances; the inadequacy of the Mil-Std hermeticity specification; the demonstrated field failures of Mil-Std-883 hermetic packaged devices and the massive ingress of moisture, which caused many failures of telecommunication switching systems; and the demonstrated better field-reliability in rural tropical climates, of assessed, standard PEM from major manufacturers.