A method and apparatus for a thermal stratification test providing cyclical and steady-state stratified environments. In order to test an electronic device, for example one having one or more levels of ball-grid-array interconnections, e.g., connecting a chip to a flip-chip substrate and connecting the flip-chip substrate to a printed circuit board of a device, an apparatus and method are provided to heat one side of the device while cooling the second side. In some embodiments, the process is then reversed to cool the first side and heat the second. Some embodiments repeat the cycle of heat-cool-heat-cool several times, and then perform functional tests of the electronic circuitry. In some embodiments, the functional tests are performed in one or more thermal-stratification configurations after cycling at more extreme thermal stratification setups. In some embodiments, a test that emphasizes solder creep is employed.