Reliability and Failures in Solid State Lighting Systems

Abstract

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.