Design for Reliability

Systems reliability remains a core concern for customers and suppliers, and yet, despite the influence of regulatory agencies in most industries, many products are not reliable. Moreover, highly complex integrated circuits, the high density of components on printed circuit boards (PCBs), and higher operation frequencies have resulted in higher power densities and a greater probability of product failure.

In this paper, methodologies and tools are described that can help producers handle complex designs and demanding time-to-market and quality requirements by enabling an earlier system reliability analysis. This analysis, in the design stage, can enable designers to make design trade-offs through derating or through design modifications, and thus to improve system reliability.