Design for test and reliability of integrated nanoscale devices and systems

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Electronics in the form of complex, highly integrated circuits and systems have now penetrated every aspects of our day to day lives. We have seen more than five decades of constant growth and increasing complexity and performance. We are now rapidly entering the so-called late- and post-silicon era. Nanoscale types of devices are rapidly emerging, and a vast array of integrated microsystems geared for all kinds of applications, from personalized internal drug delivery to the monitoring of the environment, are being developed and deployed. The quality and reliability of such systems is very important and, in many cases, may be life-critical. This research focuses on the problem of making sure that these extremely complex systems can be tested efficiently such that only the devices and systems that meet all the intended design and fabrication specifications are actually shipped to customers. Overall, this is a very challenging problem, because of the very large number of possible failure mechanisms and the overall complexity of the microsystems. The work will yield robust methods to ensure the testability of systems, and thereby, their quality as well. In addition to test, this research addresses issues of reliability. It is not only important that the systems be tested for outgoing quality, but many systems also need to perform reliably for many years, while deployed in the field. How such emerging microsystems ought to be designed and fabricated to ensure a reliable performance is a focus of this research as well. This research will benefit Canadians in two ways. Highly qualified and versatile engineers will be trained. The research will also yield important new test methodologies useful for other researchers in this field of integrated nano-/microsystems well as useful for current and future practitioners focused on making high quality and reliable novel microsystems rapidly available to the public at large.