In this dissertation, the problem of using accelerated degradation testing data for reliability estimation is studied and demonstrated. Simulation and analytical approaches have been investigated. By simulation which generates a large number of degradation paths, the reliability estimate of the product can be estimated using an empirical formation. This approach is general and has a great flexibility in estimating the reliability of a product regardless of the functional form of the degradation paths. However, it is time-consuming and sometimes can not provide efficient and accurate reliability estimates. Alternatively, the analytical approach may provide the closed-form expressions for reliability estimates for specific degradation process models. If the model fits, this approach is more accurate and efficient than the simulation approach. More importantly, when the closed-form solution exists, the optimal design of testing plans can be formulated and solved with the objective of either improving the accuracy of the reliability estimate or the accuracy of the economic loss. In addition to the statistical study of the reliability estimation, the optimal design of Accelerated Degradation Testing (ADT) plans has been investigated extensively. The objectives considered include minimizing the variance of single reliability estimate for the maintenance requirement, minimizing the weighted variances of multiple reliability estimates and minimizing the weighted economic loss associated with the reliability estimates considering multiple maintenance requirements. In the literature, this work is the first study regarding the optimal design of testing plans that considers maintenance requirements. By determining the optimal setting of decision variables such as the stress levels in the ADT experiments, the improvements in these objectives have been demonstrated using numerical examples. It can be seen that the novel methodology developed in this dissertation can significantly reduce the uncertainty of certain indices associated with the reliability estimates. This work is important in the area of reliability engineering as it indicates an efficient way of conducting accelerate degradation testing to verify the product's reliability and make management decisions under limited testing resources. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. / "December 2006." / Includes bibliographic references (leaves 126-132)

Fuel cells are the tools which convert chemical energy into electricity directly by the effective utilization of hydrogen and oxygen (or air). One of the most important barriers for the fuel cell commercialization is the durability of the fuel cell components in the long term operations. In this study, the durability of the PEM fuel cell electrocatalysts were investigated via cyclic voltammetry (CV) and rotating disk electrode (RDE) experiments in order to determine the hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) which corresponds to the half cell reactions in the fuel cell. PEM fuel cell electrodes mainly composed of carbon supported Pt catalysts. In long term operations due to Pt dissolution and carbon corrosion some properties of the electrocatalysts can be changed. Performance losses in catalysts mainly depend on / i) decrease in the total metal surface area (SA) and the electrochemically active surface area (ESA) due to the increase in the particle size ii) decrease in the tafel slope potential in ORR and iii) increase in carbon corrosion. In this study, these properties were examined via accelerated degradation tests performed in CV and RDE. The catalysts having different Pt loadings, synthesized with different ink compositions, pH values and microwave durations were investigated. The commercial catalysts having Pt loadings of 20, 50 and 70 (wt %) were tried and best results were obtained for Pt/V (50 wt %) catalyst. Different carbon to Nafion&reg / ratios of 4, 8, 12 in the ink composition were tried. C/N ratio of 8 gave the best result in Pt dissolution and carbon corrosion degradation tests. The catalysts prepared at different pH values of 1.4, 6.25 and 10 were tried and the catalyst prepared at pH of 10 was less degraded in Pt dissolution test and the catalyst prepared at pH of 6.25 showed better resistance to carbon corrosion. Catalysts prepared under different microwave durations of 50, 60 and 120 s were tried and the catalyst prepared at 60 s gave the best performances.

An increase in worldwide investments during the past several decades has pro-pelled scienti c breakthroughs in nanoscience and technology research to new and exciting levels. To ensure that these discoveries lead to commercially viable prod-ucts, it is important to address some of the fundamental engineering and scientific challenges related to nanodevices. Due to the centrality of reliability to product integrity, nanoreliability requires critical analysis and understanding to ensure long-term sustainability of nanodevices and systems. In this study, we construct a relia-bility framework for nanoscale dielectric lms used in Metallic Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) devices. The successful fabrication and incorporation of metallic oxides in MOS devices was a major milestone in the electronics industry. However, with the progressive scaling of transistors, the dielectric dimension has progressively decreased to about 2nm. This reduction has had severe reliability implications and challenges including: short channeling e ects and leakage currents due to quantum-mechanical tunneling which leads to increased power dissipation and eventually temperature re-lated gate degradation. We develop a framework to characterize and model reliability of recently devel-oped gate dielectrics of Si-MOS devices. We accomplish this through the following research steps: (i) the identi cation of the failure mechanisms of Si-based high-k gates (stress, material, environmental), (ii) developing a 3-D failure simulation as a way to acquire simulated failure data, (iii) the identi cation of the dielectric failure prob-ability structure using both kernel estimation and nonparametric Bayesian schemes so as to establish the life pro le of high-k gate dielectric. The goal is to eventually develop the appropriate failure extrapolation model to relate the reliability at the test conditions to the reliability at normal use conditions. This study provides modeling and analytical clarity regarding the inherent failure characteristics and hence the reliability of metal/high-k gate stacks of Si-based sub-strates. In addition, this research will assist manufacturers to optimally characterize, predict and manage the reliability of metal high-k gate substrates. The proposed reliability framework could be extended to other thin lm devices and eventually to other nanomaterials and devices.

This thesis deals with alternative thermal degradation of electrical insulating liquids. The theoretical part describes the current state of the problem, electrical insulating liquids, their classification and types. There are described properties of electrical insulating liquids, their models of aging and diagnostic methods in accordance with the appropriate standards. In the practical part are chosen by representatives of alternative electrical insulating liquids and there are determined their dielectric characteristics in the initial state. According to the measured values is chosen five candidates for which it is designed and implemented an accelerated degradation test. During the test are measured dielectric parameters of the selected oils. Measured dependencies are mathematically approximated. In conclusion, the results are compared and physically interpreted in view of oxidation stability.

Ces dernières années ont vu apparaître sur le marché les premiers transistors de puissance de type MOSFET en carbure de silicium. Ce type de composant est particulièrement adapté à la réalisation d’équipement électrique à haut rendement et capable de fonctionner à haute température. Néanmoins, la question de la fiabilité doit être posée avant de pouvoir envisager la mise en œuvre de ces composants dans des applications aéronautiques ou spatiales. Les mécanismes de défaillance liés à l’oxyde de grille ont pendant longtemps retardé la mise sur le marché des transistors à grille isolée en carbure de silicium. Cette étude s’attache donc à estimer la durée de vie des MOSFET SiC de 1ére génération. Dans un premier temps, le mécanisme connu sous le nom de Time Dependent Dielectric Breakdown(TDDB) a été étudié au travers de résultats expérimentaux issus de la bibliographie. Notre analyse nous a permis de justifier de l’emploi d’une loi de Weibull pour modéliser la distribution des temps à défaillance issue de ces tests. Les résultats nous ont également permis de confirmer l’amélioration significative de la fiabilité de ces structures vis-à-vis de ce mécanisme. Dans un second temps, l’impact du mécanisme d’instabilité de la tension de seuil sur la fiabilité a été quantifié au travers de tests de vieillissement de type HTGB. Les données de dégradation ainsi collectées ont été modélisées à l’aide d’un processus gamma non-homogène, qui nous a permis de prendre en compte la variabilité entre les composants testés dans des conditions identiques et de proposer des facteurs d’accélération en tension et en température pour ce mécanisme. Enfin, ces travaux ont permis d’ouvrir la voie à la mise en œuvre d’outils de pronostic de la durée de vie résiduelle pour les équipements électriques. / Recent years have seen SiC MOSFET reach the industrial market. This type of device is particularly adapted to the design of power electronics equipment with high efficiency and high reliability capable to operate in high ambient temperature. Nevertheless the question of the SiC MOSFET reliability has to be addressed prior to considering the implementation of such devices in an aeronautic application. The failure mechanisms linked to the gate oxide of the SiC MOSFET have for a long time prevented the introduction of the device. In this manuscript we propose to study the reliability of the first generation of SiC MOSFET. First, the mechanism known as the Time–Dependent Dielectric Breakdown is studied through experimental results extracted from literature. Our study shows the successful application of a Weibull law to model the time-to-failure distribution extracted from the accelerated tests. The results show also a significant improvement of the SiC MOSFET structure with respect to this phenomenon. In a second step, the impact of the threshold voltage instability is quantified through accelerated tests known as High Temperature Gate Bias. The collected degradation data are modeled using a non-homogeneous Gamma process. This approach allows taking into account the variability between devices tested under the same conditions. Acceleration factors have been proposed with respect to temperature and gate voltage. Eventually the study delivers a primary estimation of the remaining useful lifetime of the SiC MOSFET in a typical aeronautic application.

The relatively new and still growing field of 3D-printing has opened up the possibilities to manufacture patient-specific medical devices with high geometrical accuracy in a precise and quick manner. Additionally, biocompatible materials are a demand for all medical applications while biodegradability is of importance when developing scaffolds for tissue growth for instance. With respect to this, this project consisted of developing biocompatible and bioresorbable polymer blend and composite filaments, for fused deposition modeling (FDM) printing. Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and polycaprolactone (PCL) were used as supporting polymer matrix while hydroxyapatite (HA), a calcium phosphate with similar chemical composition to the mineral phase of human bone, was added to the composites to enhance the biological activity. PLA and PCL content was varied between 90–70 wt% and 10-30 wt%, respectively, while the HA content was 15 wt% in all composites. All materials were characterized in terms of mechanical properties, thermal stability, chemical composition and morphology. An accelerated degradation study of the materials was also executed in order to investigate the degradation behavior as well as the impact of the degradation on the above mentioned properties. The results showed that all processed materials exhibited higher mechanical properties compared to the human trabecular bone, even after degradation with a mass loss of around 30% for the polymer blends and 60% for the composites. It was also apparent that the mineral accelerated the polymer degradation significantly, which can be advantageous for injuries with faster healing time, requiring only support for a shorter time period.