MARCH 2026 NEWSLETTER

CALCE Reliability Science for Electronics Symposium

We invite you to join us for the Reliability Science for Electronics Symposium, hosted by the Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE) on March 25, 2026, on Zoom. The symposium will begin with an overview of CALCE’s ongoing research activities, followed by a series of presentations that explore the latest advances in reliability science and electronic systems engineering. All are welcome to attend, whether you’re a CALCE Consortium member or simply interested in learning more about the work driving progress in electronic reliability.

Register here.

Webinar: CALCE/SMTA Counterfeit Symposium in its Twentieth Year

The CALCE/SMTA Symposium on Counterfeit Parts and Materials is a premier technical event dedicated to addressing the global threat of counterfeit electronics. It is a collaborative effort between CALCE and the Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA).

In this Webinar, the Founding Chair, Dr. Diganta Das, will explore the landscape of threats posed by counterfeit electronics over the decades and the responses of the industry, professional societies, funding agencies, government, and academia. He will cover promising technologies, their successes and shortcomings, policymakers' hits and misses, and some of the blind alleys we are still focusing on.

Be a part of the 2026 Symposium by submitting an Abstract.

Professional Development Courses at CALCE/SMTA Counterfeit Symposium

At the 2026 SMTA/CALCE Symposium on Counterfeit Parts and Materials, a full day of professional development courses will be offered on June 25, 2026. The courses include the following: “Understanding and Implementing Industry Standards for Counterfeit Avoidance” and “How to Make the Best Use of 2026 Updates to SAE AS6171.”

Understanding and Implementing Industry Standards for Counterfeit Avoidance - Dr. Diganta Das

How to Make the Best Use of 2026 Updates to SAE AS6171 - Dr. Michael Azarian

CALCE Simulation Assisted Reliability Assessment (SARA) Software  Release 8.6.8

The CALCE Simulation Assisted Reliability Assessment (SARA) software includes a variety of tools to support life assessment and reliability estimation of electronic parts and assemblies. The CalceSARA software uses physics-of-failure principles to assess whether a part or system meets defined life-cycle requirements based on its material, geometry, and operating characteristics. The software provides design-capture facilities to import design data, as well as interfaces to define operational and environmental loading conditions. The software allows designs to be assessed prior to fabrication. The software supports the CALCE Design for Reliability assessment process, which enables design engineers to interactively make design changes and rapidly assess their impact on product reliability. The new release provides improved ODB++ import in calcePWA, underfilled J lead and gullwing thermal fatigue package models in calceFAST, and other improvements.

Reliability and Availability Analysis of Data Center Thermal Management System Presented at CEEE Consortium

CALCE and CEEE researchers Amir Hossein Zabihi Tari and Dr. Diganta Das presented reliability analysis of thermal management systems (TMS) for edge data centers at the recent CEEE Consortium meeting. Their work, conducted in collaboration with Dr. Andres Sarmiento and Prof. Michael Ohadi, demonstrated CALCE's expertise in assessing thermal management system designs into actionable availability and reliability metrics and solutions for computing infrastructures.

Devon Richman Defends his Doctoral Dissertation on Advancing Side‑Channel Methods

CALCE graduate student Devon Richman defended his doctoral dissertation, “Degradation Assessment of Microelectronic Devices Using Side Channel Power Modulation Analysis (PMA),” in February 2026 with the guidance of Dr. Michael Azarian and Prof. Michael Pecht. Devon’s dissertation focuses on developing side-channel-based methods to rapidly assess degradation and detect counterfeit microelectronic components. His work introduces Power Modulation Analysis (PMA), a technique that uses a device’s response to a modulating input to evaluate device quality, reliability, and authenticity, addressing critical challenges in the integrity of the global electronics supply chain.

A Review of Float Charging in Lithium-Ion Batteries: Degradation Mechanisms, Influencing Factors, and Optimization Strategies

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are increasingly being used in backup energy storage applications such as on-grid substations and solar systems, where maintaining a full state of charge is essential to ensure immediate availability and delivery of rated capacity. As a result, float charging, which involves supplying a low, continuous current to maintain the battery's charged potential and counteract self-discharge, is used to ensure batteries remain fully charged. However, prolonged float charging can lead to battery degradation caused by electrolyte decomposition, deposition of metallic lithium, and structural changes of the electrodes, compromising battery lifespan, performance, and safety.

Impact-Based Maintenance Efficiency Modeling for Multi-Component Systems with Condition-Based Component Selection

This paper develops an impact-based maintenance efficiency model that dynamically links maintenance effectiveness to the number and criticality of replacement components in multi-component repairable systems. Unlike existing approaches that assume static efficiency parameters, the model enables maintenance decisions that adapt to actual system degradation states. The efficiency formulation decomposes into a risk fraction capturing the proportion of weighted system degradation addressed, and a coverage factor with a diminishing-returns parameter reflecting the criticality distribution of maintained components.

Novel Test Method to Measure Time-cure Superposition Shift Factors of Filled-Thermoset Under Isocure Testing Conditions

Despite the solid theoretical foundation of time-cure superposition, the time-cure superposition (TCS) shift factors reported in the literature do not support the theory very well. The discrepancy stems from the non-isocure test conditions used in the tests. This study proposes a novel method to eliminate the inherent problems of existing techniques to measure the TCS shift factors, i.e., to measure them under isocure test conditions. The proposed method optimizes a test procedure while offering sufficient relaxation but producing no or negligible additional curing during testing. Optimization requires a complete understanding of curing behavior, not only in the chemically-controlled domain but also in the diffusion-controlled domain. …

Hierarchical Hollow Silica Shells for Scalable and Passive Superinsulation

Porous silica materials are highly valued for their thermal management potential, with their high porosity and large surface area making them ideal for insulation. However, challenges persist in their practical manufacturing and in establishing clear relationships between their structure and insulation performance. Here, we report a rapid 10-minute gelation process under ambient temperature and pressure conditions to enable scalable manufacturing of tunable SiO₂ hollow spheres. …

A Meta-Transfer Learning-Guided Approach for Remaining Useful Life Prediction of Rolling Bearings with Small-Sample Data

As a key transmission component of rotating machinery, the life prediction and health management of rolling bearings are crucial for achieving intelligent operation and maintenance of equipment and ensuring the reliability of the system. A small-sample remaining useful life (RUL) prediction approach for rolling bearings based on meta-transfer learning is proposed in this paper. By fusing model-agnostic meta-learning (MAML) and domain adversarial neural networks (DANN), a MAML-DANN transfer learning (MDTL) framework is constructed to address the dual challenges of few-shot adaptation and cross-domain alignment. …