iRel4.0 - Intelligent Reliability 4.0 (H2020)

Electronic components and systems are key enablers for various applications affecting our daily life areas. Moreover, they are the innovation drivers for the development of technologies, products and systems. This development is enabled and based on the results of improved reliability. Reliability is enhanced by manufacturing excellence, advanced reliability testing methods and robustness validation to verify the quality and reliability requirements needed in different application domains. Hence, to understand physical failures and defect dynamics is of utmost importance for enhancing reliability and has to be considered along the whole value chain from chip, package to board to system. Reliability has a significant impact on the entire ECS industry and all its applications. Consequently, all ECS value chain partners - material suppliers, chip manufacturers, board and system integrators, Tier I and Tier II as well as OEMs are focusing on improving reliability to satisfy the end customer. The project iRel4.0 influences various aspects of the MASP - Transport and Smart Mobility, Digital Industry, education and healthcare systems, communication, energy sector, production as well as sales and marketing.

iRel40 will focus on enhancing processes, products and systems along the electronic component and system value chain. It will follow a vertical, supply chain oriented approach to execute research and innovation across the entire value chain. iRel40 is addressing several main challenges in the field of reliability on component, board and system level focusing on:

• Reliability Requirements and reliability community building
• Analytics, Theory, Cognition & Prediction
• Advanced functional materials and interfaces
• Production & Development Excellence
• Digitized and Holistic Testing assessment
• Run Use cases and Industrial Pilots
• Reliability Validation & Impact assessment

iRel40 is all about reliability of electronic hardware. It focuses on the value chain chip-package-board/system, through modeling and simulation, through deepened understanding using Physics of Failure, with new materials, designs for reliability, real time feedbacks in production lines, improved tests, predictive algorithms and the use of all available data to learn faster with AI and ML. iRel40 will strengthen the European position in all of these domains and foster the role of European semiconductor solutions across industries. Hence, the explicit focus of iRel40 on spills prevention is clearly visible in its defined primary objectives. "Improve the Reliability by reducing the failure rate" and by this iRel40 will be a nucleus for a new European reliability expert community, enabling the differentiation in the ECS Industry.