> so many inaccuracies... if you are graduated from a high engineer school we can take > this to pm if you want because seeing the reactions to my last post, I don't think > it's wise to post here even further details of the mechanics
Yes, I graduated as an electrical engineer with first class honours, no I am not interested in arguing over private messages. I've seen plenty of semiconductor device failures in real life. The most spectacular was when an IGBT in a 15kW 3-phase inverter literally exploded in front of my face (collector-emitter punch-through), but most of them have been far more mundane. I know what you're saying - there shouldn't be enough energy supplied to break covalent bonds so the chemical structures shouldn't change. It's nice in theory, but the compounds used in semiconductors aren't perfectly stable, and they degrade naturally at room temperature. They degrade faster at higher temperatures, and the smaller the process the less degradation it takes to cause failure.