General Strategy for Space Qualification of MNT

An exhaustive evaluation of the existing literature and data on the reliability of MNT has revealed that reliability considerations in MNT have often taken a historical path rather than a systematic approach. While these reviews highlight the major reliability concerns and issues, the solutions often seem very specific to the application or the device. Under this current paradigm, it seems that there is no alternative to tedious evaluation of the reliability of MNT for every specific device and application. Given the enormous effort involved in developing such a data base and its rather device specific nature, such a strategy seems rather restrictive and cost prohibitive. Another major concern arises on account of the lack of easy portability of these systems across manufacturing platforms. Given this state of the art, there is a need to develop a coherent, systematic and broad based approach to reliability.

When evaluating mission-critical MNT, we are faced with several important considerations.  First, are micro- and nano-machined components structural?  Secondly, are these tiny components safety and fracture critical?  Finally, are they “fail safe” components? Existing design, verification, and qualification methodologies are not focused on the implication of the failure of the tiny structural components found in MNT. Furthermore, a direct extension of these methodologies to MNT is not practical. Given the complex, mission-specific nature of space applications, there is a pressing need to establish a flexible and robust approach for qualifying specific technologies and assemblies of MNT.

We propose a systematic approach to reliability of MNT as the programmatic aspect of this work. The strategy is broad based and will find applicability across several MNT devices and systems, and will address the issues of scalability and portability of these systems across manufacturing platforms. The proposed multi-million dollar, 3-5 year effort will create a systematic database of reliability considerations, recommendations for burn-in and yield testing, and integration of currently acceptable standards and qualification strategies for MNT. More importantly the proposed strategy will create a database of knowledge which can be systematically and incrementally built over a period of time to include both existing and emerging technologies and devices. Its applicability will encompass not only space and military applications but also include commercial interests.