IN Brief:
- PerkinElmer and Covalent will combine ICP-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS instrumentation with laboratory failure-analysis services.
- The work targets metallic contamination, corrosion, solder degradation, migratory shorts, polymers, coatings, and electrolytes.
- Chemical characterisation is gaining importance as advanced packages create failures that electrical test cannot fully explain.
PerkinElmer and materials-analysis specialist Covalent have formed a collaboration combining analytical instrumentation with laboratory failure-analysis services for semiconductor, electronics, battery, and advanced-materials manufacturers.
PerkinElmer’s inductively coupled plasma tandem mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry platforms will be incorporated into Covalent’s characterisation and root-cause-analysis operations.
ICP-MS/MS can identify ultra-trace elemental impurities, including metallic contamination introduced through raw materials, process chemicals, equipment, handling, assembly, or packaging. Tandem mass analysis helps separate target elements from interfering species at concentrations below the useful range of many conventional methods.
LC-MS/MS separates and identifies organic compounds and their degradation products. Applications include electrolyte breakdown in batteries, chemical changes within coatings, contamination in process materials, and deterioration of epoxy mould compounds used to protect electronic packages.
The collaboration will also address corrosion, solder-joint degradation, and migratory short circuits on PCBs and semiconductor packages. Residues, humidity, ionic contamination, material incompatibility, cleaning processes, and long-term electrical bias can all create conductive paths or progressive damage that may not appear during initial production test.
Covalent operates a 30,000ft² laboratory containing more than 75 instruments and analytical equipment valued at approximately $25 million. Its services are accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 across more than 60 standardised and proprietary methods, allowing results to support supplier corrective action, product qualification, and controlled quality investigations.
Semiconductor inspection is also moving towards new physical measurement methods, including a planned quantum-sensing chip-test equipment facility in Munich. Chemical analysis addresses a different layer of the failure, but both developments reflect the growing difficulty of locating defects within dense and heterogeneous devices.
Electrical testing can establish that a device or circuit falls outside specification without identifying the process responsible. Similar leakage, resistance, or intermittent-fault symptoms can arise from ionic residue, metal contamination, moisture uptake, corrosion, damaged polymer interfaces, or assembly defects.
Advanced packaging multiplies the possible origins. Chiplets, interposers, through-silicon vias, fine-pitch interconnects, underfills, mould compounds, thermal-interface materials, and multilayer substrates create additional boundaries at which contamination, stress, or chemical degradation can occur.
Because the failed region may be buried beneath other structures, preparation can alter or destroy the evidence before analysis begins. Electrical localisation, microscopy, surface analysis, cross-sectioning, and chemical measurements must be sequenced carefully so that one test does not compromise the next.
Elemental analysis can reveal unexpected metals or process residues, while organic techniques can identify changes in polymers, electrolytes, adhesives, and coatings after exposure to heat, voltage, radiation, humidity, or mechanical stress. Neither result establishes causation without reference samples, manufacturing history, location data, and electrical behaviour.
Sample handling becomes especially demanding at ultra-trace concentrations. Tools, containers, solvents, preparation equipment, and laboratory air can introduce contamination at levels comparable with the material under investigation, making blanks, controls, and chain of custody part of the analytical method.
Faster root-cause work can reduce the quantity of material placed on hold after a production excursion. Semiconductor fabrication and electronics assembly may process substantial volumes before a defect mechanism is understood, while delayed investigation makes it harder to separate the original cause from damage produced during continued operation or handling.
Battery materials add a further complication because electrolytes and electrodes change chemically during normal use. Differentiating expected ageing from contamination, abuse, or a manufacturing fault requires charge history, temperature records, cell construction data, and comparison with known-good samples.
Repeated laboratory investigations can also guide instrument and method development. Recurring failure mechanisms reveal where improved sensitivity, preparation techniques, software libraries, or automated workflows are needed, connecting field and production failures with the next generation of analytical tools.
As devices incorporate more materials and buried interfaces, failure analysis is becoming a coordinated sequence of electrical, optical, physical, thermal, and chemical measurements. PerkinElmer and Covalent are extending that approach into trace-element and organic mechanisms that can remain invisible until a device begins to drift, corrode, or fail.
