Performance, reliability, and costs are equally important criteria for usefulness and market success of any product. Reliability theory and physics of failure of macro/microworld are only partially applicable to nano world. Many reliability issues must be treated differently for nano systems compared to micro or macro systems. Physical processes not scaling linearly with dimensions and time dramatically change mass and heat diffusion, electrical conductivity, reaction kinetics, corrosion processes, etc.. Fatigue, friction, damping, wear-out and repair mechanisms have a different physical meaning and must be treated differently on atomic or molecular scales. Redundancy and correlations of quantum systems require considering quantum statistics of states and interference of wave functions. Still reliability theory is generic and will be applicable with proper modifications.

TOP NANO 21 Project (5202.1)
Reliability of Nanostructured Materials and Devices
A service provided by the Reliability Centre of EMPA

Scientific objectives

Identification of physical failure mechanisms of nano-structured materials and devices during fabrication process and operation.

Modeling of reliability functions and failure rates of nano-systems.

Determination of quality parameters of nano-devices, failure modes and failure analysis including reliability testing procedures and instrumentation to localize nano-defects.

Introduction of concepts and technical terms of reliability to nano-technology in an early state.

Work targets technological requirements of TOP NANO 21 projects and key topics of nano technology.

First Report

A first project report has been published in the Proceedings of the Second Annual Meeting 2001 (October 16)of TOP NANO 21.

Services available for TOP NANO 21 participants

EMPA invites any academic or industrial Top Nano 21 participant who is interested in reliability and lifetime of the functional nanostructure or nanodevice under investigation to contact EMPA.

A questionnaire (Reliability-Check Nanotechnology) is available for interested companies for a first critical self-evaluation of their own research projects.

Reliability service provided may start with a generic discussion and end with a collaboration in which the specific reliability problems are addressed in terms of physical failure analysis, accelerated aging, lifetime modeling and others. Also from macro-(d)ef(f)ects the way back to the defect mechanisms on nano-scale should be identified. Problems of redundancy as well as the reliability and functionality like error-correction or fault-tolerance of a device consisting of many identical entities (e.g. nanoscale molecular devices) may be addressed. In large-scale atomistic models critical reliability issues may be built in.

EMPA has a fully equipped reliability laboratory with chemical and physical analysis instruments including TEM and a focused ion beam (FIB) instrument which will be operational in June 2001.

Service is provided on a "first-come-first-served" basis.

Dr. Urs Sennhauser, Head Department Electronics/Metrology and Reliability Centre. EMPA, Ueberlandstrasse 129, CH-8600 Duebendorf. phone: +411 823 4173 fax: +411 823 4054 e-mail: urs.sennhauser@empa.ch