Field failures of electronic systems

Results of a research project recently concluded at the Danish Engineering Academy are presented. The scope of the research was to investigate the field-failure pattern of electronic systems of some complexity. The project included a close survey of 10000 to 15000 electronic systems in use in Denmark. A physically-explainable model is demonstrated where the device lifetimes are linked directly to the system failure pattern, without any restrictions on the device-lifetime distributions. This permits real-life components in the model. When the system failure data are known the model can be applied as an analysis tool, which makes it well suited for electronic systems; the reverse application is to use the model for improved reliability predictions based on realistic information about device-distributions.<>