General Purpose

The project addresses a major question in electronics industry: “How to test to guarantee a certain lifetime under specified conditions?” . This questions lacks a satisfactory answer, especially in the light of important technological developments of the last decade. The project’s goal is to fundamentally revise and improve the way reliability testing of electronics is performed. Reliability testing must become more effective and more consistent with the increased complexity and the evolution of material use in electronics as well as the widening of the working conditions of electronics. A new reliability testing methodology combined with proper Design-for-Reliability as well as part and material qualification – all based on physics-of-failure knowledge – needs to replace the experience based “old school” industrial black-box environmental testing. The “old school” approach is costely, time-consuming and highly ineffective because of major changes that have and are taking place in the use of electronic materials. The project will establish the basis of an integrated DfReliability, part/material qualification and reliability test approach with maximised efficacity at minimal test and design iteration cost.