BETTER PRODUCTS THROUGH RELIABILITY ANALYSIS

FROM THE RELIABILITY EXPERTS

The Omnicon Group performs structured product analyses
that make good designs better. Stress analysis, failure modes
and effects analysis, and other types of analyses are design
review techniques that examine product designs from different
angles to discover what’s likely to go wrong. The analyses also
help determine how potential problems can be prevented.
Even the most careful equipment designers cannot objectively
assess their own products. An unbiased technical assessment of
a product’s reliability and safety is essential for development of
a highly reliable and safe product.
Reliability problems can permanently damage your product’s
reputation and your company’s reputation as well. With object-
ive, independent analyses, your products can be made safer and
more dependable – the least expensive path to avoiding loss of
market share, recalls, and even lawsuits.

The Reliability Experts. Omnicon is a specialist in reliability, maintainability, and safety engineering for
mission-critical, safety-critical, and revenue-critical systems. Our customers include government agencies
and companies in the medical, industrial, and transportation fields. We have performed hundreds of analyses
on military and commercial products and have provided their designers with meaningful results. Our
experience can be applied to make virtually any product more dependable, safer, and more successful.

HOW OMNICON WORKS WITH YOU WHAT YOU RECEIVE

The basic types of analyses are described briefly on the
reverse side. Depending on your product and any failure
history, Omnicon can suggest an appropriate analysis.
An analysis is performed by engineers who are exper-
ienced in that specialty. Since about half of Omnicon’s
staff specializes in reliability, we have the skills, data
references, and tools to perform the analysis quickly and
provide customers with results that are thorough, accurate,
and meaningful.
If your product has a history of failures, Omnicon will
work with you and concentrate on specific product areas to
more quickly identify the root causes and appropriate
corrective actions. If you are designing a new product,
Omnicon can help you prevent an accumulation of field
problems before entering production.
Omnicon will work with you to tailor any analysis to your
needs and provide results that are most useful to you.
Omnicon prepares a report for each analysis. The report
summarizes what was done, highlights significant find-
ings, and provides complete details of findings, usually in
tabular form.
If a significant risk is discovered during an analysis,
Omnicon will contact your designers immediately.
Omnicon’s analyses can be helpful in other ways for
designs not yet in production. Omnicon engineers are
experienced circuit designers and software developers,
and a natural consequence of most reliability analyses is
an unbiased review of your detailed design. While
Omnicon will not attempt to design your circuits or
software, our analysts may informally suggest easier or
less expensive approaches to certain implementation
details you may wish to consider.
Above all, Omnicon gives you insight that leads to a more
dependable, safer, and better product.

The Omnicon Group Inc.

40 Arkay Drive • Hauppauge NY 11788 USA
(631) 436-7918 • Fax: (631) 436-7935
www.OmniconGroup.com
 OMNICON ANALYSIS AND YOUR PRODUCT
Electrical Stress Analysis looks for components that are
likely to fail due to operating conditions. The analysis con-
siders component application, input and operating voltages
and currents, voltage and current peaks and surges, junction
temperatures, and temperature rise. Analysis results are
presented in a table that shows, for each component, actual
operating parameters and safe limits for those parameters.
The table highlights components that are overstressed.
Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) looks for
product-level consequences of component failures and the
likelihood of each. Different types of components can fail
in a number of ways, called failure modes, and each failure
Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) takes the FMEA one step
further. The analysis looks for various ways that ind-
ividual components, or groups of components, would
have to fail to produce undesirable events. Analysis
results for each event are presented in a tree-like diagram
using logic symbols to show how dependencies among
components contribute to the undesirable event at the top
level. In this way, FTA provides valuable troubleshooting
information. The diagram shows failure probabilities at
each level, from components to the undesirable event.
INCORRECT RESPONSE
TO COMMAND

mode has an associated failure rate. Failure probabilities -12

4.60248331 x 10

and system conditions are used to compute product failure

probabilities. FMEA can highlight where fail-safe features CHANNEL 2 - INCORRECT CHANNEL 1 - INCORRECT

are needed. Analysis results are presented in a table that RESPONSE TO COMMAND RESPONSE TO COMMAND

shows, for each failure mode of each component, the local -12
2.30124166 x 10
-12
2.30124166 x 10

effect and system effect of the failure, plus its failure rate.
ONE OF ONE OF
12 POSITION 12 POSITION
RESOLVER DATA LOSS RESOLVER DATA LOSS
SIGNALS FAILS OF FECU SIGNALS FAILS OF FECU
ACTIVE OR CHANNEL 2 ACTIVE OR CHANNEL 1

Each FMEA worksheet you receive includes the

DEACTIVE RESPONSE DEACTIVE RESPONSE
(LOGIC BOARD FMEA (LOGIC BOARD FMEA
2.J) 2.J)

following information, as a minimum. Omnicon

-7 -5 -7 -5
1.7304 x 10 1.32989 x 10 1.7304 x 10 1.32989 x 10

can supply additional data to meet your needs.

Interconnection Analysis determines consequences of
• Worksheet item no. • Local failure effect electrical shorts among wires in a bundle, broken wires,
• Component name • System failure effect and shorted pins in a connector. These low-tech problems
• Component function • Failure rate are a major source of equipment failures, some of which
• Failure mode • Detection method have been catastrophic. Analysis results are presented in
• Failure cause • Remarks a table that shows, for each conductor, local and system
consequences of a broken path, and local and system
consequences of shorts to each adjacent conductor,
Software FMEA looks for consequences of failures in
including chassis ground. More information is found in
critical software. While software doesn’t fail in the same
Omnicon’s brochure on Interconnection Analysis.
sense that hardware fails, software variables sometimes
acquire unexpected values due to programming errors, bad Physical Reliability Analysis looks for possible reliabil-
input data, component failures, and many other causes. ity and safety improvements to circuit-related designs not
The analysis looks for local and system effects due to normally represented in schematics and wiring diagrams.
unexpected variable values. Analysis results are presented The analysis considers materials, component placement
in a table that shows, for each variable and failure mode, and installation, grounding techniques, thermal designs,
the local effect and the system effect of the failure. wire routing and protection, flexing, fabrication tech-
Additional information is found in Omnicon’s brochure on niques, maintenance safety, and other areas. Analysis
Software FMEA. results are presented in a report in paragraph form.

The Omnicon Group is an award-winning engineering company established in 1984. As reliability experts,
we find defects in designs that lead to unreliable, unmaintainable, or unsafe products. As software dev-
elopers, we provide every phase of the software life cycle from requirements development to acceptance
test procedures and beyond. And as hardware and systems designers, we understand the importance of
reliable designs and the techniques to achieve them. We combine our experience in these areas to provide
meaningful analyses that best meet our customers’ needs.

The Omnicon Group Inc.

40 Arkay Drive • Hauppauge NY 11788 USA
(631) 436-7918 • Fax: (631) 436-7935
www.OmniconGroup.com
2-2004