Micro Materials Center (MMC)

Core Competence Reliability

Fraunhofer ENAS is dedicated to the complex challenges of reliability and develops new solutions in the field of electronics and smart systems integration. With more than 25 years of experience, the Micro Materials Center (MMC) of Fraunhofer ENAS is one of the most important drivers of method development in Europe and a competent provider of R&D services. In the field of reliability research, the employees of the MMC, Advanced System Engineering and Multi Device Integration departments combine the following areas:

1. Strategies for comprehensive reliability testing and analysis with minimal effort
2. Acceleration of reliability assessment through virtual techniques based on numerical simulation
3. Prevention of unexpected functional failure through predictive self-monitoring (health management, self-diagnosis)

The mutual interaction of all levels (material, process, component, system and application) is comprehensively researched and included in the analysis and optimization of reliability (Fig.).

Challenge "Reliability of electronic and smart systems"

The rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) and revolutionary innovations in the areas of

• Mobility towards automatic driving and electro mobility, but also in avionics,
• Factory automation to design and implement the 'Industry 4.0' strategy,
• The energy revolution with innovative solutions for decentralised energy generation,
• The infrastructure for energy and media distribution (smart grid) as well as for comprehensive networking of all areas of public life (smart city) and many other areas such as health, recreation and communication

is a strong stimulus for the emergence of new integration technologies for smart systems. It allows a continuous increase in the complexity of the implemented functionality, the number of integrated components and the material systems used. Increasing demands are placed on the environmental and operating conditions under which they can be used and on functional safety and system availability. Nevertheless, a reduction in the resources required for development time and production costs is necessary in order to survive in global competition. Each individual trend increases the risk of failure for the new components and systems. Their actual simultaneous occurrence with high dynamics results in an unprecedented increase in the need for research into new methods to ensure the necessary reliability (Fig.).