NANOINTERFACE

Micro- and nano-electronic components are multi-scale in nature, caused by the huge scale differences of the individual materials and components in these products. Consequently, product behaviour is becoming strongly dependent on material behaviour at the atomic scale. To prevent extensive trial-and-error based testing for new technology developments, new powerful quantitative knowledge-based modelling techniques are required.

Current continuum-based finite element models rely intrinsically on extensive characterisation efforts to quantify the parameters present in these models (top-down approach). On the other hand, state-of-the-art models at atomic scale are able to describe the material behaviour at molecular level, but predictions at product scale are not feasible yet. Through direct coupling of molecular and continuum models, a multi-disciplinary approach in which experimentally validated multi-scale modelling methods will be developed in order to generate new materials and interfaces for System-in-Package (SiP) products with tailored properties and improved reliability within an industrial environment. In this approach, a user-friendly software tool will be realised which incorporates chemical, physical and electrical information from the atomic level into macroscopic models (bottom-up approach).

Furthermore, new and efficient micro- and nano-scale measurement techniques are developed for obtaining detailed information about the most important phenomena at micro- and nano-scale and fast characterisation and qualification of SiPs. An additional important distinguishing part of this project is that, due to the composition of the consortium, the whole industrial development chain is covered: from material development, multi-scale models and experimental methods towards a fully functional commercial software package, ready to be used within an industrial environment.