Defense Electronics Product Reliability Requirements
Abstract
In order to reduce costs and access the commercial industrial base, DOD is relaxing restrictions against using commercial grade electronics in military products. Are these commercial electronics devices adequate to meet the needs of defense products in hostile operating and non-operating environments for long periods of time? To help answer this question, this document looks at the ways in which electronics can fail and the specific requirements for electronics in military products. Manufacturing processes are responsible for many electronics failures. Other failures result from exposure to such stresses as temperature, humidity, vibration, shock, corrosion, radiation, and electricity during operation and non-operation. This document describes each of these failure mechanisms, the military products that each affects, the tests that are used to qualify electronics parts, and research underway. It also presents several examples of situations where commercial electronics parts were used successfully in harsh environments whose conditions exceeded the manufacturer's ratings. New reliability assessment methods that focus on root causes of failure and dominant failure sites are essential to help engineers determine whether an electronics product will survive for its intended application life or if it needs to be redesigned. In particular, military requirements for high temperature and radiation hardness assurance pose special challenges for commercial electronics.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA387515
Entities
People
- Herbert R. Brown
- Robert M. Rolfe
- Sarah H. Nash
Organizations
- Institute for Defense Analyses