Considerable mechanical and environmental reliability testing as defined by MIL-STD-883 has been performed on GE HDI modules in both hermetic and nonhermetic configurations. The tests involving temperature cycling, temperature bakes, thermal shock, power cycling by self-heating, vibration, centrifuge and drop shock showed no change in the overlay or in the performance of the underlaying chips on the substrate. As an additional reliability test, the effect of humidity cycling (45° - 95° relative humidity) on nonhermetic HDI substrates has been also investigated. Any noticeable failures and degradation of metallization were not observed by humidity cycling itself at room temperature. Both the 883 and humidity cycling test could lead to the conclusion that HDI is a robust MCM-D technology. In addition, extensive studies on the residual stress analysis of the thin film layers of metal and polymer during fabrication and thermal cycling have been performed using the Flexus laser beam bending instrument. The study results predicted that failure of overlay HDI such as delamination between layers is less likely because of lower in-plane stresses than in conventional spin-coated and cured polyimide.