Accelerated reliability growth of electronic devices

This paper describes a model for accelerated reliability growth (ARG) analysis. It provides target accelerated test times and aids in the estimation of the expected number of failures for each phase of the subsystem's qualification program. Tools such as Microsoft/spl reg/ Excel are used to program a spreadsheet and graphically display growth curves. An input/output table form is created in this program, and a graphical output is made. An example illustrates the idealized curves for a subsystem using the ARG equations. The MTBF at each point of a test-analyze-and-fix reliability growth phase is shown. After each phase, corrective actions are incorporated into the subsystem, yielding a jump in MTBF. The acceleration factor (AF) is estimated from accelerated conditions and expected typical failure modes.