A Quantum-physical Approach to Modelling the Failure Rate of a Two-state Component

The objective of the thought experiment in this contribution is to explore the potential of the well-known theory of quantum physics in terms modelling the physics of failure as part of reliability engineering. The approach is based on Fermi's golden rule predicting the transition rate from an initial state to a final state under the influence of a weak perturbation relative to a given time interval. The transition rate fits brilliantly into the framework of reliability engineering and reliability modelling as the MTTF can be derived easily. As we are scaling down from classical (macro) hardware to photons, the MTTF is scaling down from hours to attoseconds. The interpretation of results shows that the relations between the incoming perturbation energy and the resulting transition rate are pretty familiar compared to macro effects.

Keywords: Quantum physics, Physics of failure, Reliability modelling, Semiconductor.