Reliability Issues in Miniaturized Sensors: Importance of Standards. What is needed?

Summary form only given. The continued advancements in micro and nanotechnology (MNT) for the development of miniaturized sensors, actuators, and other emerging devices is growing at a rapid pace and predictions of future growth are impressive and exciting. The impact of these technologies are seen in many industrial sectors, recently for example in the semiconductor industry, the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) is in the process of adding working groups on MEMS. The reliability of these technologies also continues to grow in importance, as it is major factor in the success of MNT enabled products. New technologies can only gain acceptance by customers and consumers only when product reliability is not a concern or product life is well defined. Thus, the manufacturers of advanced sensor devices are constantly mindful of this fact, and incorporate reliability all through the product life cycle, from the early conceptual phase, through development and all the way to production introduction, product shipment and field operation. Along with the focus on reliability science, manufacturers today must be capable of fast yield ramps to recoup their investment costs. The semiconductor industry has shown the link between high yield and excellent field reliability. Thus the central question is, what is needed in the MNT product reliability arena for continued advancement? Quite simply, it is the existence of structure around the reliability aspects of this technology that will enhance field reliability for these emerging technologies. Important to such structure is the creation of standards especially relating to techniques for test and characterization of properties for materials used in miniaturized devices. Also necessary are predictive models for DfR (Design for Reliability) and early screening testing, allowing for less cycles of learning in fabrication (which translates to higher initial fab yields) and faster introduction to the marketplace. Metrology, or the science of measurement, is sprinting to try to keep up with new developments in MNT technology. Metrology is critical to producing data in development and manufacturing of these new devices and this data is required for yield enhancement and reliability programs. One example of the importance of metrology is the use of nanoparticles in gas sensor applications. How does one measure quantify/characterize a distribution of nanometer sized particles, and how does one measure the adsorption of targeted gases to determine that these materials have excellent selectivity to the gases of interest? With the plethora of data gathered in the manufacturing line (through test structure metrology at each step) as well as producing accelerated testing data, the physics of failure can be identified through a structured FMEA process. Acceleration factors for the specific physics of failure for the various failure mechanisms of the high variety of sensors and MEMS are also necessary for long-term field performance prediction. Device manufacturers will claim reliability performance, but how does the customer qualify that the manufacturer's claims are accurate? A level of structure around application specific standards for reliability testing is required so that this industry can continue to develop at a record pace while sustaining high product reliability levels.