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Failure is the First Step on the Road to Success
July 10, 2013 |Estimated reading time: 1 minute
It is an inexorable fact of life that all electronic assemblies, from the most complex, densely interconnected systems to the cheapest mass-produced consumer devices, will eventually fail. Such devices may be victims of various forms of abuse at the hands of their end-users, subjected to mechanical, environmental, or electrical stresses far beyond what any design engineer would consider reasonable. Some, especially early prototypes, may be inherently flawed and susceptible to malfunction as a result of a simple mistake made during one too many late night, bleary-eyed design review sessions, conducted over energy drinks and cold takeout. Of course, it is also possible for assemblies to simply die of old age; eventually, normal wear and tear will break down even the most robust of electronic devices. In all these cases, the result is the same (at least at a very high level): A device that no longer performs its intended function.
As consumers, our natural instinct is to take these malfunctioning devices and pitch them into the trash--often with a little more force than is strictly necessary, and a trite utterance about how “they don’t make them like they used to.” Failure is regarded as a nuisance, an inconvenience, and nothing more. In some cases, this attitude is scarcely improved upon by OEMs or other suppliers; failing parts returning from the field are subjected to a quick bench test to verify the failure, and then relegated to the scrap heap. As manufacturers, suppliers, and designers, there is so much more that can be learned from these failures; we need only spend the time and effort to uncover the root of the problem. By diving into the minutiae of a given failure, it is often possible to discover imperfections and improprieties that can be invaluable, whether in proving that a subcontractor has not been manufacturing devices to the correct spec or revealing out-of-control processes that could spell trouble for the reliability of future lots.Read the full column here.Editor's Note: This column originally appeared in the June 2013 issue of SMT Magazine.