New Type of Fatigue Discovered in Silicon

Invisible Pink Unicorn writes "Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have discovered a phenomenon long thought not to exist. They have demonstrated a mechanical fatigue process that eventually leads to cracks and breakdown in bulk silicon crystals. Silicon — the backbone of the semiconductor industry — has long been believed to be immune to fatigue from cyclic stresses because of the nature of its crystal structure and chemical bonds. However, NIST examination of the silicon used in microscopic systems that incorporate tiny gears, vibrating reeds and other mechanical features reveals stress-induced cracks that can lead to failure. This has important implications for the design of new silicon-based micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) devices that have been proposed for a wide variety of uses. The article abstract is available from Applied Physics Letters."

Comments

Commodity

[youthoftoday]

Surely with silicon products such a commodity these days this isn't so relevant?

(nth post?)

newsflash?

[Some_Llama]

I have always told my users (I work IT) that eventually EVERYTHING dies/fails.. thus the need for backups and such.. i've even seen a few processors give up the ghost in my home systems.. why would this be a shock to anyone?

Was there a widely held belief that all computer internals die EXCEPT for CPUs? If so this is the first i have heard of it...

Re:DLP TV/Projectors, the first consumer victim?

[mollymoo]

The fairly recent appearance of motion sensors in everything from mobile phones to games consoles is due to MEMS technology. If you're a geek, it's quite likely you've got a MEMS device already and it's likely made by Analog Devices.