Eco-reliability: A new metric for the eco-design of electronic systems

To limit the increasing environmental impact of electronics, current research and development efforts focus on material efficiency, in addition to the achievements towards energy efficiency. For the objective of material efficiency, the reliability of electronics becomes mandatory not only for the usual safety-critical applications but for every system as a guarantee of lifetime. This paper defines the first quantitative metric to evaluate the joint contributions of reliability and environmental impact when designing an electronic system. With a focus on Integrated Circuits, whose manufacturing contributes to a great share of electronics emissions, it shows how the metric can be integrated in a design flow, changing the current design paradigm mostly driven by performance, power and area. Results at both system and circuit levels demonstrate the interest of the metric for a quick comparison of designs or products.