Between the 14^th and 15^th of July 2023, a workshop about the reliability enhancement of advanced and functional materials and interfaces was held in Leoben, Austria. The workshop was part of the ECSEL Joint undertaking project named iRel40 and gathered people from industry and research organizations all over Europe. The consortium’s get-together included both key notes about the achievements, but also fruitful discussions in the form of interactive work sessions and mood boards. The event was complemented by a lab tour at MCL and a line tour of the AT&S plant.

The workshop had the aim to discuss the learnings from the project and how these developments contribute to improved reliability in the objected use cases of the project. Different metrologies or methodologies were presented which enable the identification of relevant failures in the microelectronics nowadays. Just as important, future perspectives, rising needs, and innovations of the microelectronic industry in Europe were discoursed.

Moreover, the event brought together front- and back-end developers, quality managers, and characterization experts, allowing them to share experiences, needs, and upcoming challenges. Mixed discussion groups with 4 to 7 persons were arranged to provide interactions and feedback on the topic of failure mode detection and analytics, relevant failure identification, and their sophisticated amount needed for statistical validation. An ideal material selection process was elaborated and its current difficulties were listed. It was stated that the trend of miniaturization imposes new challenges not only in terms of the need for improved characterization tools, but also in terms of contamination and elementary impurities becoming relevant. Furthermore, the strong demand towards sustainable materials and resource efficiency was debated.

In the discussions, it was concluded that one major challenge is the proper processing and handling of data. There is a gap in the availability of data and its access, but also in the communication between industry and data specialists. Only with that, it is possible to develop improved tools for findings of failure modes and their root causes. For effective data processing and training of neuronal network-based models, information of the suppliers over the whole supply chain is needed. So, there is the need to involve all these actors to be capable to track the failure route.

Overall, the workshop helped to gain insights into the need and expectations from all perspectives (industry, customer, researcher, etc.). All the discussions, in the full panel as well as in small groups, were productive, and fruitful innovative ideas popped up on how to guarantee more reliable but also more sustainable devices made in Europe.

Thanks to all participants for the interactive involvement and their exciting thoughts!