National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN IEC 63287‑3:2026. It is identical to IEC 63287‑3:2026.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee EPL/47, Semiconductors.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 30 September 2026.

This European Standard was approved by CENELEC on 10 September 2026. CENELEC members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration.

Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CENELEC member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CENELEC member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CENELEC members are the national electrotechnical committees of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and United Kingdom.

European foreword

The text of document 47/3015/FDIS, future edition 1 of IEC 63287‑3, prepared by TC 47 "Semiconductor devices" was submitted to the IEC-CENELEC parallel vote and approved by CENELEC as EN IEC 63287‑3:2026.

The following dates are fixed:

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CENELEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national committee. A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CENELEC website.

Endorsement notice

The text of the International Standard IEC 63287‑3:2026 was approved by CENELEC as a European Standard without any modification.

In the official version, for Bibliography, the following notes have to be added for the standard indicated:

FOREWORD

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote international co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To this end and in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications, Technical Reports, Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as "IEC Publication(s)"). Their preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested in the subject dealt with may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-governmental organizations liaising with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by agreement between the two organizations.
The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all interested IEC National Committees.
IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any misinterpretation by any end user.
In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence between any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in the latter.
IEC itself does not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity assessment services and, in some areas, access to IEC marks of conformity. IEC is not responsible for any services carried out by independent certification bodies.
All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
No liability shall attach to IEC or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and members of its technical committees and IEC National Committees for any personal injury, property damage or other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for costs (including legal fees) and expenses arising out of the publication, use of, or reliance upon, this IEC Publication or any other IEC Publications.
Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
IEC draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a) patent(s). IEC takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, IEC had not received notice of (a) patent(s), which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at https://patents.iec.ch. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

IEC 63287-3 has been prepared by IEC technical committee 47: Semiconductor devices. It is an International Standard.

The text of this International Standard is based on the following documents:

Full information on the voting for its approval can be found in the report on voting indicated in the above table.

The language used for the development of this International Standard is English.

This document was drafted in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, and developed in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 and ISO/IEC Directives, IEC Supplement, available at www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs. The main document types developed by IEC are described in greater detail at www.iec.ch/publications.

A list of all parts in the IEC 63287 series, published under the general title Semiconductor devices - Generic semiconductor qualification guidelines, can be found on the IEC website.

The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the stability date indicated on the IEC website under webstore.iec.ch in the data related to the specific document. At this date, the document will be

reconfirmed,
withdrawn, or
revised.

INTRODUCTION

When performing qualification tests, semiconductor device vendors prepare a specific reliability test plan upon consultation with semiconductor device users in order to efficiently carry out the reliability test.

This guideline presents examples of methods for preparing test plans to determine appropriate reliability test conditions, based on the level of quality required in the operating environments of various applications of power semiconductor modules. As a target of reliability, grades have been specified for each of the following applications: automotive, industrial and consumer electronics. Based on the number of annual operating hours, use period and other parameters assumed for each grade, this guideline defines verification methods for the wear-out failure, and proposes appropriate reliability tests. This guideline defines the concept of quality assurance from early failure to wear-out failure. It also presents approaches to appropriately ensure the reliability of power semiconductor modules.

The test conditions and the acceleration factor values presented in this guideline are only examples used for setting reliability test conditions to verify a required level of quality.

NOTE Qualification tests are tests performed by power semiconductor device vendors, taking into account the quality required by the users of their products.

1 Scope

This part of IEC 63287 specifies guidelines for a reliability qualification plan for power semiconductor modules to assure reliability targets over the entire product life.

Power semiconductor modules with incorporated control circuits are excluded. Clamped packages that need external pressure for being mounted in a system are excluded, e.g. disc-type pressure pack devices.

This document is not intended for medical, military, aeronautics and astronautics-related applications.

NOTE Throughout the document, the term power semiconductor module refers to multichip semiconductor power modules as defined in 3.3.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 Product categories and applications

4.1 Quality grade by application

4.2 Quality grades and preconditions (Example)

5 Failure

5.1 Failure distribution

5.2 Early failure period

5.3 Random failure period

5.4 Wear-out failure period

6 Reliability test

6.1 Reliability test methods

6.2 Acceleration models for reliability tests

7 Stress test methods

8 Summary table of assumptions

9 Summary

Bibliography