Both accelerated stress testing (AST) and environmental stress screening (ESS) are important to the areas of product development, manufacturing and field services to assure customer satisfaction. The robustness of the final product obtained with the application of AST and ESS technology can assure customer satisfaction even with the multitude of different environments and applications to which a product can be subjected. This special issue details achievements, guidelines and continuing challenges to the quality and reliability engineering community for producing robust best-in-class product.
The last decade has observed an exponential growth in AST in the product design and development area, especially in the commercial electronics area-from handheld PCMCIA credit card size units through 90 plus pound elevator electronic control units and from lowvolume through high-volume production scenarios. AST and ESS are not limited to niche product areas. The papers in this issue illustrate a variety of case studies and applications and present guidelines for many areas.
In the first paper, Masotti and Morelli present the AST programme that transitioned the company from a 'test-torequirements' to a 'test-to-failure' philosophy. The paper contains detailed process charts for HALT, HASS and POS. The second paper by Prakash presents the challenges and successes in a high-volume manufacturing facility. The paper gives case study details, including HALT/HASS profiles and results, along with describing specific failures and their precipitative stresses. Prakash demonstrates that HALT and HASS provide a valueadded component to the manufacturing process.
The third paper by McLinn discusses improvements in multi-level accelerated life testing for the analysis of the projected life of components, which is also