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Failure Analysis Overview

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Any time a product is manufactured there are various elements that go into the product cycle. This involves designing the product, creating it, producing it in batches, and shipping it. There is one thing that manufacturing companies face everyday is that one or two of their products they make will fail. This is a natural process of doing business. The way the business handles it is referred to as failure analysis. Failure analysis is very important, especially in electronics. If one part fails to work or is installed on the board incorrectly, this one mistake could cause the board to fail, thereby causing the product to fail. It is the responsibility of the company to test all products that are manufactured so as to verify the product as being good. Otherwise, returns are very likely. Failure analysis takes many stages. Some of which will be discussed in this article. Here are some points you will discover as you read this article:

• Visual Inspection: Failure analysis involves various stages or phases one of which is visual inspection. By carefully inspecting a component of a product, you may be able to see any problems or defects. You may see traces of burnt material or smell the odor of something having burnt on the board.
• Electrical Testing: In order to perform failure analysis you need to do electrical or electronic testing to verify all components are working properly. This is the true way to tell whether or not a component is defective or showing signs of weakness. By all intents and purposes, this method will surely uncover any problems that may occur with any component.
• Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE): This method or phase is designed to provide the information on how often failure occurs within a production cycle, or with a particular component or part. It can go so far as to pinpoint the cause of failure.
• Destructive Evaluation: The next step after NDE is to use destructive evaluation. This can be done by taking the component apart from the root level to find the source of the failure. Once that source is found, corrective measures are put in place to rectify this.

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