Abstract:

The need for reliability assessment software for the design of competitive electronic products is discussed. While software tools exists to aid in electrical design, layout, routing and the manufacture of electronic products, reliability assessment tools have received only limited attention. With tighter design cycles, industry can no longer afford the traditional approach of testing-in reliability. To accomplish reliability assessment, software must model and simulate electronic products and manufacturing processes to determine external and internal stresses which lead to product failure. An example of a software tool which performs reliability assessment for circuit card assemblies is the calcePWA software (Osterman et al., 1995 and calcePWA Users Manual, 1996), developed by the CALCE Electronic Packaging Research Center (EPRC). A military electronic system is analyzed using the calcePWA to illustrate the features and usage of reliability assessment software.

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