Robustness Validation for Automotive Products

Abstract:
Integrated circuits used in automotive electronic systems are exposed to extreme environmental and operating conditions. Therefore, it is already today a must to have reliability in the order of a few parts per million (ppm) failure rates over the 10-20 year vehicle lifetime. Unfortunately, current qualification approaches are not application-specific, and only partially cover today’s technology risks. Robustness Validation is the new key strategy to overcome these problems and meet the challenges. Consequently, the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) together with the Automotive Electronic Systems Reliability Committee has joined with the German Association of Electronics Manufacturer’s (ZVEI) to develop a new approach to IC qualification. The talk will discuss this new methodology compared to the present approach, and provide more information on how Robustness Validation is used within a typical knowledge-based qualification flow during product development. The knowledge base that is needed for performing this type of qualification is finally explained as part of the process flow.