Aerospace and Avionics Industries: Online Resources

Since 1984, nearly $45M has been invested in developing innovative methodologies to decrease life-cycle risks for the next generation of electronic products and systems, and to provide an educational and technological infrastructure for their rapid dissemination and use. We now offer an extensive set of resources to help engineers assess, mitigate, and manage risks in electronic products. These include web-based documents and tools to: conduct parts selection and management; conduct cost-effective accelerated testing and screening; predict reliability based on physics of failure and using virtual qualification software; design using components outside their rated temperature; design and utilize high temperature electronics; and model life cycle economics.

CalcePWA and CADMP II reliability assessment software was developed at CALCE EPSC over the past 15 years. It is the most advanced reliability assessment and virtual qualification tools currently available providing engineers with a silicon-to-systems accelerated product qualification capabilities. To access more information on the CALCE software products, click here.

MOCA (Mitigation of Obsolescence Cost Analysis) is a software tool for determining the part obsolescence impact on the life cycle sustainment costs for the long field life electronic systems based on future production projections, maintenance requirements and part obsolescence forecasts.  To access more information on the MOCA software, click here.

The center offers a wide access to a collection of web-based documents, called webbooks, that cover areas of critical importance in electronic products and system development, ranging from solder-joint fatigue analysis and accelerated test development to cost analysis and supply chain management. To access a complete list of CALCE webbooks and their short descriptions, click here.

Webbooks of particular interest to the Avionics and Aerospace industries are listed below:

  • High Temperature Electronic Packaging
    This interactive guidebook for the development of electronic systems for use at temperatures above 125 °C/ Provides information for each package element. Information includes material properties, failure mechanisms, failure models, and manufacturing sites. Contact: Dr. Patrick McCluskey, Dr. Diganta Das, [presentations, interactive online guidebook, book chapters and references].
  • Influence of Temperature on Microelectronics and System Reliability
    An authoritative source on the effects of temperature on microelectronic device failure mechanisms. The document covers the important issues of steady state temperature dependent models, temperature effects associated with temperature cycling, temperature gradient, and time dependent temperature changes. It identifies models quantifying the temperature effects on various package elements, and address of the impacts of various design for temperature trade-offs on electronic systems. Temperature related models are assessed in terms of their use for determining the maximum and minimum allowable thermal stresses for a given system architecture. Contact: Dr. Michael Pecht and Dr. Diganta Das, [book chapters and references].
  • Liquid Crystal Displays: Performance and Reliability
    Display technology is changing at an ever increasing pace. New developments focused towards optimizing power, size, weight, performance and cost are revolutionizing the display industry. The flat panel display market is projected to be around $30 billion worldwide in 2003, of which 86% is expected to be liquid crystal displays. Furthermore active matrix LCD are projected to be the dominant LCD technology in the coming years. Apart from consumer electronics, increasing use of LCDs in critical applications like defense, avionics and automobiles has evoked the need to understand the reliability of LCD devices. This web handbook is part of this effort to bring together all the scattered data on LCD reliability at one place for the benefit of CALCE consortium members. Contact: Dr. Patrick McCluskey, Dr. Bongtae Han, [book chapters and references].
  • Long-Term Non-Operating Reliability of Electronic Products
    Electronics can experience a range of environments subsequent to manufacture and prior to disposal. Non-operating electronics do not necessarily experience benign environments. The potential environmental stresses on non-operating electronics can be natural, such as those due to climatic conditions, or can be induced by humans. This book examines non-operating electronics reliability issues, outlining and discussing storage conditions, the stresses that can arise in these conditions, and the failure mechanisms that can cause a failure. Contact: Dr. Michael Pecht and Dr. Diganta Das, [book chapters and references].
  • Plastic Encapsulated Microelectronics (including, PEM Encyclopedia, and PEM Bibliography)
    An interactive guide including a webbook, a bibliography, and online movies, provides a state of current technology and guidelines for use, manufacturing and purchasing of Plastic Encapsulated Microcircuits (PEMs). The webbook presents the science and technology behind PEMs. The advantages of using plastic packages, and the state of the current technology are discussed. A perspective on future trends in plastic encapsulation, especially on chip technology, packaging, design, materials selection, manufacturing processes, device integration and application-specific reliability is included. Also included is a bibliography of a wide range of critical publications in the fields of PEM manufacture, use, and reliability. Contact: Dr. Michael Pecht and Dr. Diganta Das, [book chapters, references, bibliography and online movies].