Track 1 Session 15

3:30 to 5:00 p.m. Thursday, June 9, 2011

Calculating the Reliability Improvement Value of HALT

Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT) is a design tool that exposes design flaws and weaknesses in new, unreleased products. These are defects that may cause failures during design verification testing, create early "infant mortality" failures soon after the new product is released, or lead to expensive warranty issues later in the product’s life cycle. There is a financial advantage in finding these defects early in the design cycle. By calculating the Return on Investment (ROI) of HALT, the value of the reliability improvements enabled by the HALT process can be demonstrated. This presentation will outline the process of calculating HALT ROI, describe the data needed to complete the calculation and provide an example of a HALT ROI calculation. The extended value of applying HALT throughout the life cycle of a product will be discussed. Consideration factors for implementing HALT in-house versus outsourcing will also be evaluated.

Key Words: HALT, HALT Testing, Highly Accelerated Life Test, ALT, Ruggedization, Subassembly Reliability, ROI, Return on Investment

Neill Doertenbach

Qualmark Corporation

Denver, CO