4. Designing and Testing for System Reliability
System reliability is crucial for maintaining the effective operation of hardware in critical applications. The chapter outlines key concepts including the definition of system reliability, causes of hardware failures, design principles for ensuring reliability, and various testing strategies. It emphasizes the importance of continual improvement through field data and adherence to industry standards.
Sections
Navigate through the learning materials and practice exercises.
What we have learnt
- Reliability is a critical hardware design goal that ensures continuous, safe, and dependable operation.
- Design principles such as derating, redundancy, and shielding, along with testing strategies like stress and thermal testing, are essential for identifying weaknesses.
- Analytical tools like FMEA, simulations, and MTBF models help quantify and improve reliability.
- Field monitoring and compliance with reliability standards are key to maintaining reliability throughout the system lifecycle.
Key Concepts
- -- MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures)
- Average operating time between failures.
- -- MTTR (Mean Time to Repair)
- Average time required to fix a failure.
- -- Derating
- Operating components below their maximum rated limits to enhance reliability.
- -- Redundancy
- Duplicating critical subsystems to ensure reliability in case one fails.
- -- FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis)
- A systematic method for evaluating processes to identify where and how they might fail.
- -- HALT/HASS
- Highly Accelerated Life Testing and Highly Accelerated Stress Screening, methods to uncover weaknesses in products.
- -- ISO 26262
- An international standard for functional safety of electrical and electronic systems in production automobiles.
Additional Learning Materials
Supplementary resources to enhance your learning experience.