📋 Tender Overview
More reliability of electronic components and systems by reducing the error rate along the value chain 79 partners from 14 European countries are working together on the iRel40 research project under the leadership of Infineon Technologies AG. The Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS is developing new concepts and methods for physical failure analysis and the creation of failure models. The consortium is paving the way for technologies such as autonomous driving and strengthening the competitive position of German and European industry.Solutions for energy efficiency and medical technology require ever more powerful electronic components and systems. They will only prevail if the users can trust the robustness of the electronics used. The European research project Intelligent Reliability 4.0 iRel40 which runs until April 30 2023 aims to make a decisive contribution to this. Worldwide leading experts from industry and science have come together to optimize the entire process of electronics development with regard to reliability and service life.The Fraunhofer IMWS is active in several of the six work packages of iRel40 and in particular contributes its expertise and methodological skills in material characterization modeling high-resolution microstructure analysis and physical error diagnostics. Frank Altmann who heads the Fraunhofer IMWS sub-project explainsThe challenges are already considerable today. The trend towards miniaturization ensures that more and more functionality is packed into ever smaller volumes. There it is only possible to examine individual components or detect the smallest errors with further development of the corresponding processes. For The future even more complex requirements small improvements in these technologies are no longer sufficient. We need major advances and new approaches for example through the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning. This is exactly what the consortium wants with its concentrated knowledge of physics chemistry materials science and electronics to reach.In further work packages in the project which belongs to the European development project ECSEL Electronic Components and Systems for European Leadership the possibilities of new sensors for example are opened up to enable the prediction of future system errors. This is a prerequisite for concepts such as Smart Maintenance and real-time control of process steps. At the same time such data enables a digital image of the materials components and systems digital twin which enables further optimization and can contribute to understanding underlying effects more quickly influencing them in a targeted manner and thus increasing reliability and service life.
