HALT methodology has been a popular way to test harsh environment reliability. A new approach involves PCB design simulation for vibration and acceleration for deeper yet faster analyses.
By Craig Armenti & Dave Wiens—Mentor Board Systems Division
Many electronic products today are required to operate under significant environmental stress for countless hours. The need to design a reliable product is not a new concept, however, the days of depending on a product’s “made in” label as an indicator of reliability are long gone. PCB designers now realize the importance of capturing the physical constraints and fatigue issues for a design prior to manufacturing to reduce board failure and improve product quality.

Simulation results should be available in a two-phase post-processor for each simulation, providing broad input on the PCB’s behavior under the defined conditions.
Although every product is expected to fail at some point. That’s inevitable. But premature failures can be mitigated through proper design when proper attention is paid to potential issues due to vibration and acceleration. ….
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