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Accelerated Reliability

by Kirk Gray 2 Comments

Will reparable designs help reduce electronics waste?

Will reparable designs help reduce electronics waste?

Another one bites the dust!

Apparently, my lovely wife is one of the best at finding stress testing limits of kitchen blenders, or we are unlucky at getting blenders that had some latent defect.  She has discovered the destruct limit of 3 blenders within months of use. She does not do in the formal HALT methodology, as they break in what most would consider normal use conditions. It may have been a valid HALT evaluation if she had started with soft or easy to blend materials, starting with o ice or nuts and measured the time to reach its destruct limit. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Accelerated Reliability, Articles, on Product Reliability

by Kirk Gray Leave a Comment

What do you mean that my phone is obsolete?

What do you mean that my phone is obsolete?

Reliability engineers have traditionally been asked to answer a common question during development of a new device or system, and that is “How long will it last?”.

It is the eternal question in equipment reliability development, and it really comes down to “that depends on many factors”. One question that needs to be asked is how long do you need it to, or should it last? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Accelerated Reliability, Articles, on Product Reliability Tagged With: obsolescence

by Kirk Gray 9 Comments

Exposing a Reliability Conflict of Interest

Exposing a Reliability Conflict of Interest

I posted an article recently by Bloomberg on the Defense Department’s recent disclosure of the escalating support cost of the F-35 Joint Fighter Jet. With over 3,700 views, it was the most read of my posts. The original article on escalating F-35 reliability costs can be read at this link

I posted the article with the comment: “Once a test engineer working for a large DoD contractor once told me at a reliability conference, ‘These new reliability development techniques of HALT and HASS would be a lot easier to implement if spare parts and service did not constitute 60% of the total program profits.’ That was not the first time I have heard a similar comment from a test or reliability engineer or manager working in the defense industry. I believe these engineers working on the reliability end of the programs said these concerns me out of frustration. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Accelerated Reliability, Articles, on Product Reliability

by Kirk Gray Leave a Comment

When Smart TV Content Delivery Fails, Who is to Blame?

HDTV chainA Crisis in the Home IT department

If you are the head of your home IT department, you may relate to this tale

Last night my wonderful wife Stacy was riddled with angst over the disruption of her binge watching a spy series, a mild crisis with our own IT hardware.

The cause of her disappointment was the failure of our new large screen Ultra High Definition (UHD) Smart TV to deliver a drama series with a reasonable picture and sound quality. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Accelerated Reliability, Articles, on Product Reliability Tagged With: Rca, root cause

by Kirk Gray 4 Comments

You May Often be Exceeding Operating Specifications!

You May Often be Exceeding Operating Specifications!

HALT (Highly Accelerated Life Test) requires exceeding specifications

One aspect of HALT, (a test to find weaknesses and reliability risks empirically), is the difficulty for many engineers that are new to the HALT- that it guarantees that the maximum or recommended operating environmental specifications for the system and components under test will be exceeded, and failures beyond spec are potentially relevant to field reliability. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Accelerated Reliability, Articles, on Product Reliability Tagged With: HALT, Reliability Testing

by Kirk Gray Leave a Comment

Required Case History for Reliability Engineers

Required Case History for Reliability Engineers

One for the (Reliability) Books

The GM Ignition switch failure case history should be required reading for all reliability engineers.

It is rare to have insight into any internal company history of serious electronic and electromechanical failures. Failure analysis and the causes of electronics or electromechanical systems failure can be a difficult investigation for any manufacturing company. Disclosure of the history and data is rarely if ever published due to the potential liability and litigation costs as well as loss of reputation for reliability and safety.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Accelerated Reliability, Articles, on Product Reliability Tagged With: field failure, reliability

by Kirk Gray Leave a Comment

Eliminating early life failures

Eliminating early life failures

MTBF for electronics life entitlement measurements is a meaningless term. It says nothing about the distribution of failures or the cause of failures and is only valid for a constant failure rate, which almost never occurs in the real world. It is a term that should be eliminated along with reliability predictions of electronics systems with no moving parts. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Accelerated Reliability, Articles, on Product Reliability Tagged With: early life failure

by Kirk Gray 2 Comments

Electronics Failure Prediction Methodology does not work

Electronics Failure Prediction Methodology does not work

 

“When the number of factors coming into play in a phenomenological complex is too large, scientific method in most cases fails.  One need only think of the weather, in which case the prediction even for a few days ahead is impossible.” ― Albert Einstein

“Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.” – Niels Bohr* We have always had a quest to reduce future uncertainties and know what is going to happen to us, how long we will live, and what may impact our lives.  Horoscopes, Tarot

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Accelerated Reliability, Articles, on Product Reliability Tagged With: prediction

by Kirk Gray Leave a Comment

Why success with HALT begins long before doing HALT

Why success with HALT begins long before doing HALT

Implementing a new reliability development paradigm in a company which is using traditional, standards-based testing can be a perilous journey.

It is especially true with introducing HALT (Highly Accelerated Life Test) in which strength against stress, and not quantifying electronics lifetimes is the new metric.  Because of this significant change in test orientation, a critical factor for success begins with educating the company’s top  [Read more…]

Filed Under: Accelerated Reliability, Articles, on Product Reliability Tagged With: HALT, testing

by Kirk Gray Leave a Comment

Why HALT is a methodology, not equipment

Why HALT is a methodology, not equipment

It is easy to understand why the term HALT (Highly Accelerated Life Test) is so tightly couple to the equipment called “HALT chambers” systems.  Many do not think they can do HALT processes without a “HALT Chamber”. Many know that Dr. Gregg Hobbs, who coined the term HALT and also HASS (Highly Accelerated Stress Screens), spent much of his life promoting the techniques and was also the founder of two “HALT/HASS” environmental chamber companies. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Accelerated Reliability, Articles, on Product Reliability Tagged With: HALT

by Kirk Gray Leave a Comment

Why Parametric Variation Can Lead to Failures and HALT Can Help

Why Parametric Variation Can Lead to Failures and HALT Can Help

Many reliability engineers have discovered HALT will quickly find the weaknesses and reliability risks in electronic and electromechanical systems from the capability of thermal cycling and vibration to create rapid mechanical fatigue in electronic assemblies. Assemblies that have latent defects such as cold solder or cracked solder joints, loose connectors or mechanical fasteners, or component package defects can be brought to a detectable, or patent, condition by which we can observe and potentially improve the robustness of an electronics system.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Accelerated Reliability, Articles, on Product Reliability Tagged With: HALT

by Kirk Gray Leave a Comment

Reliability Paradigm Shift From Time to Stress Metrics

Reliability Paradigm Shift From Time to Stress Metrics

Traditional electronics reliability engineering began during the period of infancy in solid state electronic hardware. The first comprehensive guide to Failure Prediction Methodology (FPM) premiered in 1956 with the publication of the RCA release TR-1100:  “Reliability Stress Analysis for Electronic Equipment” presented models for computing rates of component failures.  “RADC Reliability Notebook” emerged later in 1959, followed by the publication of a military handbook know as  that addressed reliability prediction known as Military Handbook  for [Read more…]

Filed Under: Accelerated Reliability, Articles, on Product Reliability Tagged With: metrics, stress

by Kirk Gray Leave a Comment

What will Advance Reliability Engineering?

What will Advance Reliability Engineering?

In all aspects of engineering we only make improvements and innovation in technology by building on previous knowledge. Yet in the field of reliability engineering (and in particular electronics assemblies and systems), sharing the knowledge about field failures of electronics hardware and the true root causes is extremely limited. Without the ability to share data and teach what we know about the real causes of “un-reliability” in the field, it is more easily understood why the belief in the ability able to model and predict the future of electronics life and MTBF continue to dominate the field of electronics reliability

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Accelerated Reliability, Articles, on Product Reliability Tagged With: analysis, data

by Kirk Gray Leave a Comment

For Maximum Test Value, Take it to the Limit!

For Maximum Test Value, Take it to the Limit!

When we go to an automobile race such as the Indianapolis 500, watching those cars circle the track can get fairly boring. What is secretly unspoken is that everyone observing the race is watching for a race car to find and sometimes exceed a limit, finding a discontinuity. The limit could be how fast he enters a curve before the acceleration forces exceed the tires coefficient of friction, or how close to the racetrack wall, he can be before he contacts it and spins out of control. Using the race analogy, [Read more…]

Filed Under: Accelerated Reliability, Articles, on Product Reliability Tagged With: HALT, MTBF, testing, value

by Kirk Gray Leave a Comment

Why the Drain in the Bathtub Curve Matters

Why the Drain in the Bathtub Curve Matters

Most reliability engineers are familiar with the life cycle bathtub curve, the shape of the hazard rate or risks of failure of a electronic product over time. A typical electronic’s life cycle bathtub curve is shown in figure 1. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Accelerated Reliability, Articles, on Product Reliability Tagged With: Failure, field failure, prediction

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