Reliability and the Physics of Failure Program at RADC

Abstract

A S A REPRESENTATIVE of the Rome Air Development Center, I would like to personally join our co-sponsor, the Armour Research Foundation, in welcoming you to this symposium in the field of reliability physics. This symposium enjoys the distinction, I believe, of being the first in this important aspect of the general subject of reliability, and since I am sure it is destined to play a very fundamental role in that subject, it will probably not be the last. Since the majority of the papers to be presented here will describe work which was largely sponsored by the Rome Air Development Center, it was felt not only appropriate, but helpful, to relate to you, at the very outset, something of the origins and the goals of the Physics of Failure program at RADC.The Rome Air Development Center has been active in the field of reliability for the past eight years, particularly as applied to the development of ground based electronics eqtuipment for the Air Force. The equipment we develop is used to acquire, process, transmit, and present data for use in Air Force Command and Control Systems. I would like, first, to describe briefly some of our problems in reliability and then show how they pointed up the need for a new approach.The principal motivation for early reliability design and engineering came, initially, from the military services. It arose from a situation which, unfortunately, is still with us today-military equipment which keeps growing more complex and, as a consequence, failing more often.The requirements and environments for ground electronic equipment are, in many respects, less severe than those for airborne or missile electronics equipment. For example, size and weight, operation at high temperatures, and extreme shock and vibration are far less critical requirements on the ground than for airborne or missile applications. There are two factors, however, which have tended to increase the problems confronting the designer of ground electronic equipment: (1) an increasing number of functions previously performed by airborne electronic devices must now be designed into the ground equipment, and(2) as the speeds and altitudes of aircraft and missiles increase, a 4 i;X