Solder fatigue is a key failure mode in the electronic industry. Monitoring the actual degradation of the solder under real-time conditions in any application would be extremely beneficial. In this chapter, we describe the combination of experimental material characterization with numerical finite element (FE) simulations to obtain a prognostics and health monitoring (PHM) methodology for LED drivers used in outdoor lighting applications. Experimental characterization of a new type of solder is described. A FE model is created of a typical component in electronic drivers. The calculated damage level and the collected life data correlate together and form a model for predicting the lifetime of the drivers at certain user condition. The developed PHM methodology helps in identifying and reporting the failure of the driver in real time or can be used for predicting the actual remaining useful life (RUL).

@en

Reliability is an essential scientific and technological domain intrinsically linked with system integration. Nowadays, semiconductor industries are confronted with ever-increasing design complexity, dramatically decreasing design margins, increasing chances for and consequences of failures, shortening of product development and qualification time, and increasing difficulties to meet quality, robustness, and reliability requirements. The scientific successes of many micro/nano-related technology developments cannot lead to business success without innovation and breakthroughs in the way that we address reliability through the whole value chain. The aim of reliability is to predict, optimize, and design upfront the reliability of micro/nanoelectronics and systems, an area denoted as “Design for Reliability (DfR)”. While virtual schemes based on numerical simulation are widely used for functional design, they lack a systematic approach when used for reliability assessments. Besides this, lifetime predictions are still based on old standards assuming a constant failure rate behavior. In this chapter, we will present the reliability and failures found in solid-state lighting systems. It includes both degradation and catastrophic failure modes from observation toward a full description of its mechanism obtained by extensive use of acceleration tests using knowledge-based qualification methods.@en

Reliability is an essential scientific and technological domain intrinsically linked with system integration. Nowadays, semiconductor industries are confronted with ever-increasing design complexity, dramatically decreasing design margins, increasing chances for and consequences of failures, shortening of product development and qualification time, and increasing difficulties to meet quality, robustness, and reliability requirements. The scientific successes of many micro/nano-related technology developments cannot lead to business success without innovation and breakthroughs in the way that we address reliability through the whole value chain. The aim of reliability is to predict, optimize and design upfront the reliability of micro/nanoelectronics and systems, an area denoted as ‘Design for Reliability (DfR)’. While virtual schemes based on numerical simulation are widely used for functional design, they lack a systematic approach when used for reliability assessments. Besides this, lifetime predictions are still based on old standards assuming a constant failure rate behavior. In this paper, we will present the reliability and failures found in solid-state lighting systems. It includes both degradation and catastrophic failure modes from observation towards a full description of its mechanism obtained by extensive use of acceleration tests using knowledge-based qualification methods. A use case will be presented in more details.

@en

Reliability is an essential scientific and technological domain intrinsically linked with system integration. Nowadays, semiconductor industries are confronted with ever-increasing design complexity, dramatically decreasing design margins, increasing chances for and consequences of failures, shortening of product development and qualification time, and increasing difficulties to meet quality, robustness, and reliability requirements. The scientific successes of many micro/nano-related technology developments cannot lead to business success with-out innovation and breakthroughs in the way that we address reliability through the whole value chain. The aim of reliability is to predict, optimize and design upfront the reliability of micro/nanoelectronics and systems, an area denoted as 'Design for Reliability (DfR)'. While virtual schemes based on numerical simulation are widely used for functional design, they lack a systematic approach when used for reliability assessments. Besides this, lifetime predictions are still based on old standards assuming a constant failure rate behavior. In this paper, we will present the reliability and failures found in solid-state lighting systems. It includes both degradation and catastrophic failure modes from observation towards a full description of its mechanism obtained by extensive use of acceleration tests using knowledge-based qualification methods.

@en

This publication presents the results of a design lab that explores landscape-based design approaches for adaptive urban transformation in fast urbanizing deltas. While using design as a research strategy landscape architecture principles are explored that ensure water safety and inclusive socio-ecological design. The projects as presented here explore water resilient industrial transformation, flood protection, socio-spatial integration and the reintegration of urban villages in the Pearl River Delta. There are also two sheer projects with similar approach applied in Beijing and Jakarta. This lab is connected to the NWO-NSFC-EPSRC funded project ‘Adaptive Urban Transformation’ and a collaboration of Delft University of Technology, South China University of Technology and The University of Sheffield. The lab contributes to the project with design workshop participation, MSc-thesis and publications. www.adaptiveurbantransformation.com@en

We have characterized the dynamics of the polar nanoregions in Pb (Mg _1/3 Nb_2/3)O₃ through high-resolution neutron-backscattering and spin-echo measurements of the diffuse-scattering cross section. We find that the diffuse-scattering intensity consists of both static and dynamic components. The static component first appears at the Curie temperature Θ∼400 K while the dynamic component freezes completely at the temperature T_f ∼200 K; together, these components account for all of the observed spectral weight contributing to the diffuse-scattering cross section. The integrated intensity of the dynamic component peaks near the temperature at which the frequency-dependent dielectric constant reaches a maximum (T_max) when measured at 1 GHz, i.e., on a time scale of ∼1 ns. Our neutron-scattering results can thus be directly related to dielectric and infrared measurements of the polar nanoregions. Finally, the global temperature dependence of the diffuse scattering can be understood in terms of just two temperature scales, which is consistent with random-field models.

@en