IQS attended the recent NEBS conference in Las Vegas on September 21-22. At the sold out conference, an upcoming new requirement regarding thermal management was announced.

It is expected in 2006 that a new thermal modeling and test effort will be required as part of NEBS certification. The test will be a CFD Analysis of a final networking product to validate thermal performance of the equipment as well as to understand the thermal impact in the overall room. An experimental validation of thermal performance is also expected.

IQS is well positioned to help its customers meet this new standard. With an in-house thermal management team already in place, combined with its position as an independent test lab for NEBS, IQS will ensure its customers will be able to meet the new standard quickly and effectively. The details of the new standard have not been finalized, and IQS will continue to provide our readers with updates as they develop.

Designing a consistently reliable product encompasses multiple facets of analysis, simulation and testing. Ironically, reliablility testing is the either bypassed or done late in the design cycle due to the challenge of having to meet product release schedules with thin resources and a short time frame. The rational for meeting the schedule will cause the company to falsely discount the possibility of horrendously expensive field, product delays, and customer satisfaction costs. By performing a few basics at the front end, the costs will be less and time for design will be reduced. IQS has 2 product reliability tips of the day to share: the 1/10/100 ratio and why the MTBF: MIL-STD-217 should always be used in reliability planning.

The basic rule of the 1/10/100 This concept ratio explains the cost of reducing reliability problems in various stages of the product development process. If a reliability problem is corrected in the design cycle, the developer pays, for example, the equivalent of $1; if the problem is fixed during the testing phase, then the cost is 10 times more. Finally, if a product reliability problem is found in the field, then the cost is 100 times more. While industry completely understands the concept, the mystery is why do so many fail to address the issue early in the development process? The surveys conducted indicate that some in the engineering community believe the front end analysis to be costly and potentially delay the projects completion. IQS’s customers have found the cost to be negligible in the scheme of the project. So, if you plan on skipping product reliability testing to get to market faster, we can give you lots of examples why you might think again!

MTBF Analysis (Mean Time Between Failure) MTBF analysis can be computed in two general manners. The most common product predictive analysis used is the sum of parts analysis, (Bellcore/Telcordia). This analysis simply provides a poor “average” estimate of product life. This analysis does not go into the detail with regard to which specific component is actually over stressed nor can it make a specific recommendation. IQS strongly recommends a customer utilize the second tool, the MIL-STD-217 for its product reliability prediction capability. It provides component level detail into potential failures. Because of IQS’s integrated view of the entire design process, we can also incorporate specific expected temperatures and voltages to truly understand which component is the “Weakest Link”. IQS provides specific and cost effective suggestion for improvement long before you go into production.

The bottom line is no engineer wants to be late with the design nor do they want to be called back to rework their designs. In the case of “Front End” Reliability, an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure!

IQS is pleased to announce that it is now the Northeast Sales Representative for Boston Design Solutions, a provider of electrical design engineering services. In this capacity, IQS will be able to offer electrical design services to its customers. Working with Boston Design complements IQS's lineup of product design services. This synergistic fit allows IQS to provide its customers with complete system level design services.

IQS is pleased to announce English Technical Sales as its exclusive representative for California from the Bay Area to Mexico with a concentration of effort in Southern California . English Technical Sales offers a unique range of products including heat sinks, fans, DC-DC converters, and other products for the electronics marketplace. We welcome English Technical Sales to the IQS team!

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