New Fall 2020 Course: ENRE 648C

Professor Aris Christou will be teaching a new course during the Fall 2020 semester: ENRE 648C: Reliability Physics of Nanotypes (Nano-Reliability). This course is also cross-posted as ENMA 689C.

Nano-reliability measures the ability of a nano scaled product to perform its intended functionality. At the nano-scale, the physical, chemical and biological properties of the material differ from microscopic and macroscopic properties. Conventional relliability theories need to be re-examined to be applied to nano-reliability. Nano-reliability becomes extremely important because nano structures serve critical roles in newly designed products. This course introduces concepts of reliability to nanostructures and nano electronics. Modeling techniques of degradation, reliablity functions, and failure rates of nanosystems are also introduced in this course. Nano-reliability measures the probability that a nano-scaled product performs its intended functionality without failure under given conditions for a specified period of time. Nano-reliability then consists of the following main sections.

Introduction of concepts and technical terms of reliability to nano-technology.
Identification of physical failure mechanisms of nano-structured materials and devices during fabrication processes and operation.
Determination of quality parameters of nano-devices, failure modes and failure analysis including reliability testing procedures to identify localized nano-defects.
Modeling of reliability functions and failure rates o nano-devices.
Aging and degradation models mainly for advanced CMOS devices.

The course will consist of 25 lectures in one semester.

Lectures 1-3: Empirical, Statistical and Physics Basis of Reliability

Lectures 4-6: Statistics: Why and How

Lectures 7-13: Introduction to Nano-electronic Reliability

Lectures 14-17: Characterization Methods for Interface Traps

Lectures 17-20: Theory of Dielectric Breakdown

Lectures 21-25: Nano-Creep and Fatigue in Nanostructured Materials, Inverse Hall-Patch Effects

Reference Texts

Nanosystems, by K. Eric Drexler, published by Wiley-Interscience

Nanoelectronics and Nanosystems, by Karl Goser, Peter Glosekotter and Jan Dienstuhl. published by Springer, 2004, ISBN 3-540-40443-0

Published June 9, 2020