The book is intended as a textbook for first and second year graduate students in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. It can also be used as a reference book for self-study by engineers in the microelectronic industry. The early chapters in this book evolve from Electronic Thin Film Science, by K. N. Tu, J. W. Mayer, and L. C. Feldman, and published by MacMillan in 1993. The contents of this book have been taught in a graduate class on “Thin film materials science” at UCLA for over 15 years.

The emphasis in thin-film research is twofold: (1) to invent or to process new thin-film materials having useful functions in applications, and (2) to improve the reliability of functional thin films in large-scale applications, for example, in consumer electronic products. To achieve these goals, on the basis of the discipline of thin-film materials science, requires the study of correlation among structure—properties—processing—performance—reliability of thin films. There are textbooks on the processing of thin films, such as deposition methods by sputtering, electroplating, and MBE growth. There are also textbooks on characterization techniques such as SEM, TEM, RBS, XPS, UPS, Auger, and STM, etc. However, there is no textbook on thin-film reliability science.

When a technology is mature and in mass production, and has widespread application, reliability issues become crucial. As the trend of miniaturization of electronic devices moves into the nanoscale region, the reliability concern of nanotechnology will become serious in the near future.