SYSTEM RELIAl3ILITY
Loretta Arellano
Hughes Aircraft Company
P.O. Box 92426
Los Angeles, CA 90009
(3 10) 334-4248
summa^
ility to the consumer means
that products in systems will perform for a
specified amount of time with minimal or no
failures or maintenance. A manufacturer will
guarantee that their products are reliable by
offering a warranty that typically covers
breakage, lack of performance, and
manufacturer's defects. To ensure that their
products will oudast the warranty, reliability
must be designed into the system.
Designed-in means to understand what the
reliability drivers are and to eliminate them or
minimize their effects.
Several factors and processes contribute to
the reliability of a product the components
selected, how they are applied and how they
are manufactured and assembled in the
system. Each, once understood, can be
appropriately designed and planned, and
thus the effects of failures can be minimized.
Listed below are major contributors to
product reliability.
Comoonentlmaterialcontribution
Electrical component failure mechanisms are
becoming generally, well known and, the
inherent reliability of components is steadily
increasing. There are several methods to
calculate the failure rate of electrical and
mechanical components that are provided in
handbooks. Solder joint failures caused by
the differences of Coefficient of Thermal
Expansion (CTE) of the solder adjacent to
I -1
the components and the materials of the
board or heatsink contribute to the failure
rate of the boards.
Desisn apolication contribution
How the components are used in design
greatly affect the system reliability, the major
drivers being electrical and thermal stresses
applied. Several design guidelines exist that
limit junction temperature, power dissipation,
and current. Designing for worst case
conditions (e.g., temperature, altitude,
humidity and vibration) increase reliability but
must be weighed against the probability of
worst case occurrence and cost
Architecture contribution
A fault tolerant system is one in which a
failure may occur, but in which the system
detects and self-corrects or compensates.
This may involve redundant hardware, smart
software or multi functional capability.
Redundant hardware will increase reliability
but may cost and weigh more. Smart
software can be as simple as error detection
and correction code available in memory
components.
Fault detectionlisolationcontribution
Integrated diagnostics can be a significant
maintenance cost savings. Some failures,
when occurring in the system, fail to repeat
during diagnostics. By employing the same
built in self test (BET) techniques to detect
and isolate the failure during all levels
43
(periodically in use or during initiated
diagnostics), the probability of repeating the
failures during diagnostics becomes very
high.
Manufacturina contribution
The manufacturing process, if not controlled,
can be the largest contributor to high
warranty costs. Environment Stress
Screening (ESS) is a technique used to
eliminate poor workmanship and defects and
can be conducted at the part, board, unit or
system level. ESS involves subjecting the
hardware to several cycles of temperature
extremes and usually includes some level of
vibration. By monitoring ESS failures and
determining the root causes of failure, the
manufacturing processes can be improved.
In manufacturing large quantities of
assemblies, maintaining high levels of
throughput require monitoring and analyses
such as Statistical Process Control (SPC)
techniques.
Repair contribution
If hardware is returned for repair, the process
of re-furbishing can be life limiting.
Unsoldering and re-soldering components
require heat and solvents to be used. The
effects of these should be considered when
re-deploying re-furbished hardware.
Once the reliability drivers and objectives are
understood, analyses and tests can be
performed to balance reliability with cost,
performance and supportability. In order to
design in reliability, a thorough Reliability
program should include the following types of
activities:
System modelina and prediction
After understanding the system architecture
and the inter-dependencies, a reliability block
437
diagram can be developed which indicates
the dependencies. Redundancies, both
physical and functional, can be utilized and
taken into account. Several tools are
commercially available to quantify the
probability of system success. Some System
Reliability figures of merit include: Mean
Time Between Failure (MTBF), Mean Time
Between Critical Failures (MTBCF), Mean
Time Between Maintenance Actions
(MTBMA), A, (Operational Availability), or R,
where R is the probability of success in a
defined mission or period of use.
Once the system reliability is quantified,
trades can be performed to weigh reliabifity
against performance, the support concept
and cost A non-repairable or safety critical
system requires a high confidence of
survival, whereas an accessible repairable,
low cost system may tolerate a less reliable
system.
Failure Modes, Effects and Criticalla
Analysis (FMECA)
Evaluating the effect of Failures to minimize
their effects is essential for safety critical
systems. Redundancy mechanisms need to
be evaluated to prevent ‘single point failures’
that void the redundant design. Reliability
critical components (new technologies,
temperature sensitive, large quantities per
system, etc.) are candidates for a detailed
physics of failure analysis or being subjected
to accelerated life tests. Fault detectionffault
isolation analysis can be combined with the
FMECA. If built-in-test (BIT) is used in the
design, all failure modes identified in the
FMECA should be detected by BIT.
Electronic PartsICircuits Tolerance Analysis
JEPICTA)
An EPICTA, also known as a worst case
analysis, is used to ensure that component
tolerance build-up does not alter system
performance. It should take into account
such parameters as vol ge, power, and
aging effects. This analysis can be
rmed using simulation or by actual
Derating Analysis
Electrical component derating is limiting the
component temperatures and electrical
stresses to optimize the inherent reliability of
the components. Typical rule of thumb is to
the growth in reliability. Via lognog plots of
MTBF vs. test time we can project achieving
the MTBF required in subsequent product
production. In analyzing the failures during
RDIGT, a FMECA is a crucial tool to identify
the failure mechanism causing the failure.
Conclusion
These are several of the critical analyses to
be performed to assure the expected
reliability will be achieved. However, to
assure the System Reliability will not
diminish as production continues it is
necessary to continue observing failures,
analyzing the root causes, and improving on
the process.

less than 11OoC.

-
ESS

of a product, Reliability
Tests (RDIGT) are
performed, also known as Test, Analyze And
Fix (TAAF). The purpose is to test the
hardware under mission critical conditions for
sufficiently long periods to surface and fix
any failures that preclude achieving the
required MTBF. During the test period all
failures are to be analyzed, fixed and testing
resumed. By continuing in this fashion for
many hours (usually 3-10 times longer than
the MTBF of the product), we can observe