A stud y of the agin g behavi or of low-power germa nium alloy switc hing tra ns istors has revealed a rela tions hi p between s mall c han ges in junction leakage c urrent, induced by a bri ef agin g stress, a nd late r de te ri ora ti o n in pe rform a nce. This relations hip may provide the bas is for a nond es t ru ctiv e scree ning procedure whic h would se rve to ide ntify ge rmanium alloy t~a n s i s tors likel y to de teriorate through excessive growth of juncti on le akage c urre nt.

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... e proposed scree ning procedure ir. volves the de termin ati on of rela tively small ch anges in juncti on leakage curre nt, in creases of the ord e r of IS perce nt or mo re, assoc ia ted with 1,000 hours of agin g a t a shelf (bake) stress of 100 0c. Because the lea kage curren t cha nges of inte rest are s mall, relatively hi gh de ma nd s are placed upon meas ureme nt re lJeatabilit y. Th e re is e vide nce th a t tra nsistors bearin g id e nti cal type nu mbers but of different ma nufac ture respo nd diffe ren tly to th e sa me sc ree nin g procedu res a nd would t he refore require di f· fere nt scree nin g li mits . Key Word s: Agin g be hav ior, alloy tran s istors, failure predi cti on, leakage c urre nt , sc reening proced ures, te mp e ra ture s tress, trans isto r, t ra nsistor failure, tra nsistor scree nin g.