RELIABILITY EVALUATIOIN OF ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS

Abstract

The complexity of electronic circuits has increased rapidly with the advancement of integrated circuit technology. A detailed study of electronic circuit design is thus necessia--ted prior to its fabrication. Reliability evaluation of the circuits is the most urgent step in the design process. An effort has been made to evaluate the component failure rate of electronic circuits with database structures of failure rate data. Part stress analysis technique is adop-ted to quantify the part failure models of different components in the circuit. The loading (electrical stress) of each com-ponent is calculated from the circuit analysis (d.c. and tran-sient behaviour of the circuit). A menu-driven program is wri-tten using dBASE III PLUS package to calculate the part failure rates. The electrical stress (loading) and other factors (like temperature, environment, parts quality etc.) are the inputs to the program written. Since the program is menu-driven, all the required inputs, for a particular component selected can be displayed on C.R.T. terminal. Finally, the total failure rate of the circuit is stored in a database structure and can be obtained in any desired report form. It is assumed that failure of any component will cause the failure of the circuit.