Aging in electronic systems

Aging and wearout are timely topics for today's economy. Worldwide financial conditions have forced process plant managers to use electronic control systems long beyond their design life. Process industry management has had a reputation for frugality. When capital investments are considered it is usually easier to make do with existing equipment than to defend the expenditure of capital on new equipment. This fiscal conservatism has presented the author with the opportunity to survey electronic control systems in more than 20 process plants, ranging from chemical plants in South Africa, to refineries in Texas and to power plants in Saskatchewan. This paper records the findings of those surveys, adds to the body of literature on aging and wearout in electronics, and makes engineering generalizations that can he applied to similar kinds of systems, such as personal computers.