AN048 The Basic Principles of Electrical Overstress (EOS)

1 1 / 162018-12-03 | Document No.: AN048 NoteThe Basic Principles of Electrical Overstress (EOS)AbstractEvery single electronic component or device has absolute maximum Electrical rated valuesthat are specified by the component manufacturer. Each component must be operatedbelow the maximum rated values in order to ensure that it functions properly, reliably, androbustly. As a semiconductor-based optoelectronic device, an LED (light-emitting diode) should alsobe operated below the absolute maximum Electrical ratings specified in the manufacturer'sdata sheet in order to safeguard its reliability and service life as well as to ensure that it isoperated safely. One factor that contributes to LED failure in LED circuits and systems iselectrical Overstress (EOS). This application note describes the nature of EOS, explains howit differs from ESD, discusses its causes, outlines EOS-related damage, and providesinformation on how an LED can be protected from EOS.

2 Even though these Basic principlesapply to all electronic components, this application note focuses on LEDs. Valid for:all LEDs from OSRAM Opto SemiconductorsAuthors: Varga Horst / Haefner NorbertApplication Note No. / 162018-12-03 | Document No.: AN048 Table of contentsA. What is EOS? ..2B. EOS versus ESD ..3C. Cause of EOS ..4D. What type of damage can be expected as a result of EOS in LEDs? ..5E. How to protect LEDs from EOS ..9F. Overvoltage protection devices ..10G. Current limiters ..11H. Conclusion ..15A. What is EOS? Electrical Overstress is a term used to describe an event whereby an electroniccomponent is operated above its absolute maximum Electrical rated values asspecified in its data sheet. In other words, EOS is experienced by an electroniccomponent when that component is operated deliberately or accidentally above its absolute maximum Electrical rated values.

3 EOS can be a single event,repeated events, or continuous in the case of an LED, the following parameters are both relevant and important:Maximum forward current or maximum voltage across an LED, maximum surgecurrent, maximum reverse current or voltage, maximum permissible continuouspulse current and temperature. These should all be kept below the maximumrated values to ensure that EOS is not experienced by the reference, the maximum Electrical rated values for a OSRAM OptoSemiconductors White SYNIOS P 2720 are shown in Figure and Table / 162018-12-03 | Document No.: AN048 Figure 1: Maximum Electrical rated values of SYNIOS P 2720 ( KW )B. EOS versus ESDWhen discussing EOS, the first thing that comes to mind is ESD (electrostaticdischarge). Even experienced engineers use the terms interchangeably, butthere are slight differences between the events (Figure 2: HBM Human Body Model) are rather defined and arevery short in duration (a matter of nanoseconds) with significantly higher voltagesup to kV range and a moderate current, whereas EOS events (Figure 3) areTable 1: Maximum ratings of SYNIOS P 2720 (IF = 350 mA, Ts = 25 C)ParameterSymbolValuesForward VReverse VForward mA700 mASurge currentt 10 s; D = ; TS=25 C) mAReverse / 162018-12-03 | Document No.

4 : AN048 extremely broad and have a longer duration (milliseconds or even seconds) witha typically lower voltage and a higher current. On the basis of this extremelygeneral description of EOS and ESD, ESD can be considered to be a subset 2: ESD waveform (HBM)Figure 3: Reference EOS waveform ESD is mostly non-powered; the damage results in small holes in theepitaxial layer (EPI). EOS takes place in power mode; the damage is sign of overheating (moltenareas in the EPI / bond wire).C. Cause of EOSEOS is a very broad concept and can have many different sources, includingpower-on and power-off transients, inrush current, and excessive voltages orcurrents (in the case of LEDs, this is commonly known as overdriving). ESD which we are going to consider as a subset of EOS has electrostatic sources> 500 VIEC 61000-4-2ns< 100 / 162018-12-03 | Document No.

5 : AN048 mostly limited to the manufacturing, packaging, and handling of conditions that are common in integrated circuits due to the internalcircuitry and construction of ICs are also considered to be EOS events. Power-on and power-off transients also called spikes can come from thedriver of an LED circuit or system. In applications with discrete control, spikescan be generated near to the location of the LED circuit and can be coupled invia wiring harnesses, for example. Moreover, the wiring between the driver andthe LED mount can be a source of spikes. These transients can be significantand are capable of causing damage depending on the driver topology, type ofprotection used in the system, and the power level. In this context, slowregulated or inadequate power supplies are also a sensitive the case of LEDs, inrush current is most common if LEDs are connected to anenergized power supply, known as hot plugging in the electronic industry.

6 Thelarge amount of current that can flow during hot plugging constitutes an EOSevent and can cause serious LED or any other electronic component can be overdriven (deliberately oraccidentally) for various reasons. One case where an LED could be overdrivenaccidentally is if the driver cannot properly regulate the output current. Forexample, if the operating current of an LED circuit or system is extremely closeto the maximum data sheet current, the driver should be able to tightly maintainthe operating current. A inadequate designed driver which allows significantoutput current fluctuations can easily cause the maximum data sheet current tobe exceeded, which in turn results in the overdriving of the LED. Some other sources outside the scope of this application note should bementioned here for reference purposes only.

7 Events such as power surges andlightning can also cause damage to LED circuits and systems if there are noexternal protection circuits to protect against these What type of damage can be expected as a result of EOS in LEDs?EOS damage in LEDs can be catastrophic in that the LED is permanently non-functional immediately after the EOS event; alternatively there may be just partialdamage whereby a significant degradation in performance or the completefailure of the LED only occurs later on. Partial EOS damage in LEDs mightmanifest itself as reduced light output, poor thermal performance, and/or ashorter service life. Some of the EOS damage is visible using a microscope (orcan even be spotted with the naked eye), but other types of damage requireindirect testing, especially in the case of a single ESD-type event ( I-V curvetracer, X-ray, SEM, etc.)

8 The indirect way of testing for EOS damage involves biasing the LED and usinga curve tracer to plot the current-voltage (I-V) curve characteristic of thedamaged LED. The type of damage is highly dependent on the severity of theevent. It can range from a burned LED die to molten or broken bond wire, ashorted LED, inhomogeneous appearance when lit, and hot spots. There / 162018-12-03 | Document No.: AN048 even be no obvious damage. For reference purposes, some types of EOSdamage are depicted in Figure 4: Visible and invisible LED damage caused by EOSIt is also important to note that many EOS events do not damage the LEDimmediately. As a result, by the time LED failure occurs it may no longer bepossible to associate the failure with the initial EOS event even though the rootcause of the failure may have been a single EOS experienced by the LED somewhile ago.

9 What this means is that an EOS event can be easily overlooked by thetime LED failure becomes obvious. This is yet another reason to strive to avoidEOS in LED circuits and illustrate the potential severity of EOS damage, some experiments wereperformed in the lab with known EOS events. Below are the results of knownEOS events applied to an LED with the following data sheet maximum electricalrated 1. The LEDs short-circuited fairly quickly. Possible failures here include the thermaloverstressing of the semiconductor or a fused wire bond. As shown in Figure 5,damage can be seen in the vicinity of the bond wire on the 2: Experiment 1: LEDs were overdriven with a constant current of 1000 mAParameterMinimumMaximumForward current(Ts = 25 C)30 mA250 mASurge current(Ts = 25 C, t 10 s)750 mANo visible damageInhomogeneousluminous / 162018-12-03 | Document No.

10 : AN048 Figure 5: Results experiment 1In this experiment, failure occurred in about 10 20 seconds. The current levelin this experiment was four times the data sheet maximum current. A typical EOScurrent can even be much higher than the current applied here. However, theduration of the EOS event may not be as long as 10 20 seconds. Below theX-ray image of one of the damaged 6: X-ray view of the LED on the left side the ESD diode and on the right the LED / 162018-12-03 | Document No.: AN048 Experiment 2. The LEDs were driven with a pulse current of 1000 mA (T = 1 s, D = ). Whendriven with a pulse current, it took much longer for failure to occur. However, thenature of the failures was similar. Damage can be seen in the vicinity of the bondwire on the 7: Results experiment 2 Experiment 3. The LEDs were driven with a single pulse of 3000 mA for 300 ms.