Design for Excellence (DfX) South

Did you miss attending Design for Excellence (DfX) West? Don't worry, DfX South is right around the corner. Register today!

The five-day seminar will be held in Huntsville, Alabama, on May 17-21, 2010. Courses will also be available via live webinar for those out of the area. This one-of-a-kind collaborative effort will provide designers, reliability personnel, and engineering management with tools on how to meet time-to-market deadlines and reduce warranty issues.

Two tracks are available; however, each course is priced individually to allow attendees to register for the specific courses which best fit their individual needs. Feel free to mix-and-match. If you can't attend for the entire week, select the course(s) most valuable to you.

Cost per course, per person: two day = $1195, one day = $695. Webinar costs are 25% less. Register five people and the fifth person is FREE! Discounts for full-time students and unemployed individuals are available.

Track 1: DfX
Monday: Design for Reliability (1 day)
Tuesday: Design for Environment (1 day)
Wednesday: Design for Manufacturability (1 day)
Thursday: Design for Testability (1 day)
Friday: Design for Components (1 day)

Track 2: ALT/RCA
Monday & Tuesday: Best Accelerated Life Tests (2 days)
Wednesday & Thursday: Root Cause Analysis (2 days)
Friday: Design for Mechanical Reliability (1 day)

For more information, or to register, please click here or e-mail accounting@dfrsolutions.com

Overworked? Feeling swamped? DfR can help!

Overworked? Feeling swamped? DfR can help!

As the economy starts to heat up, work loads are increasing, but companies are hesitant to increase headcount. How do you ensure schedules are met as engineering tasks keep piling on? Call DfR Solutions.

Whether you need us for 1 hour or 100 hours, DfR Solutions can provide a broad range of pre-qualified engineering personnel skilled in design reviews, supplier audits, FMEAs, product qualification, and a myriad of other reliability and quality activities.

DfR is comfortable working with individual project or time and materials approaches. For time and material projects, DfR can provide enhanced pricing to fit your needs and requirements.

Don't work another 12 hour day. Look to DfR for assistance and contact Ed Dodd by phone at 301-474-0607 x311 or via e-mail, edodd@dfrsolutions.com.

Is it a REACH or a STRETCH?

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), the source for information on REACH chemicals, has expanded the original list of 14 Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) to 29 (click here for an updated list of substances). Companies wishing to be REACH compliant must react quickly to meet 2011 deadlines for reporting. As expected, some issues and concerns make the challenge ahead difficult for those involved. For more information, please contact Craig Hillman, chillman@dfrsolutions.com.

Is the Solar Industry Reinventing the Wheel? Or Completely Missing It?

For the solar industry to become a critical element of renewable power generation, it will need to solve the current reliability versus cost conundrum. Solar must meet the high reliability expectations of the utility industry and yet continue to reduce cost per kilowatt hour. With these tight margins, there is very little room for error, especially in capturing wearout mechanisms that could initiate failure within 25 years. As an invited participant at the recent PV Reliability Workshop, DfR presented a unique approach for predicting and ensuring the reliability of photovoltaic and concentrated photovoltaic systems. For more information, contact Greg Caswell, gcaswell@dfrsolutions.com.

Design for Excellence (DfX) West is almost here!

The five-day seminar will be held in San Jose, California, on April 19-23, 2010. This one-of-a-kind collaborative effort will provide designers, reliability personnel, and engineering management with tools on how to meet time-to-market deadlines and reduce warranty issues.

Two tracks are available; however, each course is priced individually to allow attendees to register for the specific courses which best fit their individual needs. Feel free to mix-and-match. If you can't attend for the entire week, select the course(s) most valuable to you.

Cost: Two day = $1195, One day = $695, Half day = $395. Webinar costs are 25% less.

Track 1: DfX
Monday: Design for Reliability (1 day)
Tuesday: Design for Environment (1 day)
Wednesday: Design for Manufacturability (1 day)
Thursday: Design for Testability (1 day)
Friday: Software Design for Reliability (1/2 day) and Design for Warranty (1/2 day)

Track 2: ALT/RCA
Monday & Tuesday: Best Accelerated Life Tests (2 days)
Wednesday & Thursday: Root Cause Analysis (2 days)
Friday: Design for Mechanical Reliability (1 day)

Click here to view the Introduction to DfX Concepts webinar from Qualmark's Ask the Experts series. For more information, or to register, please click here or e-mail tsmittenaar@dfrsolutions.com.

Think You Don't Need to Worry About PCB Cleanliness? We Do!

Testing for circuit board cleanliness using ion chromatography (IC) was once the domain of high reliability applications. The continued miniaturization of today's electronic products; including the fine pitch and low standoff (and QFN is the worst of both), has made this type of testing increasingly mainstream. This white paper details the process of IC and provides the reader a clear understanding of best-in-class pass/fail criteria for ionic contaminants. For more information, contact Seth Binfield, sbinfield@dfrsolutions.com.

MIL-HDBK-217 now moving in the direction of Physics of Failure (PoF)

The Defense Standardization Program Office (DSPO) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has initiated a multi-phase effort to update MIL-HDBK-217, the military's often imitated and frequently criticized reliability prediction bible for electronics equipment. In this paper, DfR reviews the reason for the revival and update of MIL-HDBK-217 along with the concerns over its shortcomings. For more information on how DfR is the industry leader in PoF, contact Jim McLeish, jmcleish@dfrsolutions.com.