Testing

The elements of a program to deal with pre-sale and post-sale safety issues are well-known. But the specifics of what elements should be used and how by a particular manufacturer are often unknown. Therefore, the most important question that must be answered by any company manufacturing finished products or component parts is “What should my company do and how should I do it?”

System level tests on a USB3 controller with on-board protection were found to yield irreproducible failure levels. A root cause analysis was performed using a combination of gun tests, TLP tests, and SEED simulation. It was found that an inductive current distribution between protection and SoC may explain the actual failure levels. Solutions are presented for effective on-board protection of USB3 controller boards.

This article defines ionization qualification and periodic verification test procedures for ionizers which are not addressed in STM3.1 or SP3.3, including air-assist bar ionizers, soft x-ray ionizers, an alternative method of room ionization, and non-airflow alpha ionizers.

Updates to Past CDM Open Forum Questions

Accredited test laboratories, complying with the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025 have to evaluate measurement uncertainty.

If someone were to ask you what one singular device is most synonymous with testing, or even electrical engineering, the overwhelming response would most likely be the oscilloscope probe.

ISO 26262 defines the probabilistic metric for random hardware failures (PMHF) as the average probability of a violation of a safety goal associated with a failure over a vehicle’s lifetime and architecture metrics. In this article, we propose a method to calculate the PMHF and expand the application to redundant subsystems that are not adequately described in the standard.

Design plans, engineering drawings, production procedures, safety memoranda, and marketing strategies can significantly help or hurt a manufacturer or product seller, especially in the event of product liability litigation.

It is no trivial matter to properly interpret system level test results on high-speed boards. Board manufacturers (OEMs) assess the ESD robustness of their system by means of gun testing, not always in accordance with the IEC standard.

This article describes how the principles of laboratory testing of electrical noise impairment can be followed in the automotive sector to dramatically reduce the manufacturer’s development time and effort.