Micro and Nano Systems (MNS) have the potential to revolutionize how engineers approach the challenge of creating the next generation of aerospace vehicles and satellites. Research and development of MNS has been motivated by their potential to enable: (i) novel applications, due to their unprecedented sensitivities, small size, low power consumption, and high speed, (ii) low cost, disposable devices arising from the promise of batch fabrication processes, and (iii) improved product performance due to self testing and self calibration capabilities.

Since microsystems have arisen from semiconductor device processing strategies, the expectation has been that their development and performance would exhibit the extraordinary Moore’s law-like rates of improvement seen in integrated circuits. However, in contrast to integrated circuits, there is no transistor-like device, which forms the basis for all micro and nano systems. Hence, there is no unifying process or device characteristic on which the design, fabrication, performance metrics, and reliability standards of MNS can be based. Reliability, while crucial to successful commercialization and applications of MNS, can be therefore difficult to define. This concept paper reviews the state-of-the-art in reliability testing and defines a general approach for insuring reliable MNT.