Manufacturing AST with Telecommunication Products - Reprinted from Quality Improvement Using Environmental Stress Testing, in the AT&T Technical Journal, pp. 1023, with permission from the authors and the AT&T Technical Journal 1992.

AT&T and other leading manufacturers have developed techniques that use environmental stress testing to enhance the quality and reliability of electronics assemblies. These techniques consist primarily of applying thermal, vibration, and voltage stresses to components or assemblies during design and manufacturing. Environmental stress testing is a tool that is used to accelerate the detection of product weaknesses. When coupled with corrective-action programs, this tool also enhances product quality and reliability. This chapter discusses applications of environmental stress testing in the electronics industry. It also reviews the results of environmental stress testing at AT&T's Little Rock Operations Center in Arkansas as applied primarily to the manufacture of circuit-card assemblies.

• Introduction

• EST During Product Design (Design AST)

• Production EST (AST)

• Production EST (AST) Studies at AT&T

• Results of the Thermal Cycling Studies

• Acknowledgments

• References