Reliability is a crucial aspect that must be taken into account when developing a product. This is especially true in the field of microelectronics, where devices are often exposed to harsh environments (i.e. temperature variations, strong electric fields, corrosive gases). To increase the reliability of microelectronics in harsh environments, a solid understanding of the processes (e.g. corrosion) within the devices is essential.

In our group, we study model systems from the semiconductor industry, which allow us to look at relevant parameters in a controllable environment. By applying harsh, but defined, conditions to these model systems, we induce corrosion and degradation processes. In general, our main interest is the investigation of material-level mechanisms that can lead to reduced reliability. 

We use a number of electrochemical measurement methods for the investigation of our samples, such as transient current measurements, EIS (electrochemical impedance spectroscopy), CV (cyclic voltammetry) and RDE (rotating disc electrode). Furthermore, we specialize in the development of new electrochemical measurement methods (e.g. ‘diffusion cell’), especially with integrated analytics (e.g. electrochemical in-situ XRD measurement cell). 
 Our research methods are supported by finite element simulation (i.e. COMSOL Multiphysics®) and - for general analytics - by close cooperation with various groups at TU Wien (e.g. XPS, Raman, XRD, LA-ICP-MS, LIBS, TEM).