Accelerated reliability testing for telecommunication systems using the highly accelerated life test (HALT) and highly accelerated stress screening (HASS)

A new method that can improve equipment reliability during the design process and increase process reliability in production environments is presented. HALT is a method for assessing and increasing the robustness of products during development. A HASS procedure is derived from the data obtained from the HALT investigation and used to track down process weaknesses and process failures in production environments. Following the realisation of HALT and HASS is described and the results obtained from a test are presented. Furthermore, the strengths and weaknesses of the methods are outlined from a users point of view.