Created: 03/31/05

Rating and Uprating of Electronic Products
Diganta Das, Michael Pecht, and Neeraj Pendse

CALCE EPSC Press, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 2004

Use of electronic parts beyond their manufacturer specified ratings is widespread and cuts across many industry sectors. Unfortunately, the process is often ad hoc and based on outdated ideas and methodologies with unquantifiable risks. Uprating is a process to assess the ability of a part to meet the functionality and performance requirements of the application in which the part is used outside the manufacturer recommended operating range.

Rating and Uprating of Electronic Parts is the first practical guide for engineers involved in uprating electronic parts. The aim of the book is to give the reader a well-defined, risk-informed methodology which will enable one to determine whether an electronics part will meet the performance requirements when used outside the manufacturer specified ratings, as listed in the part datasheet.

This book is based on the work performed by the authors together with electronics industry worldwide and has been reviewed positively by industry and academia. After studying this book, you will be able to:

• determine how to find a part that will meet the datasheet specifications of the application environment, including the temperature ratings
• avoid pitfalls and risks associated with using parts outside their rated specifications
• apply a methodology to uprate a part for your target application conditions
• mitigate the technical and legal risks associated with the use of parts outside the performance specifications
• address future trends and needs related to part ratings

Who is this book for?

This book is for the component engineers, test engineers, purchase engineers, engineering managers, system engineers, design engineers, quality assurance personnel and manufacturing engineers, associated with the selection, qualification, and management of electronic parts. The book is meant to support the complete supply chain that may make or use uprated parts; including product manufacturers, electrical test laboratories, after-market part suppliers, regulatory bodies, part manufacturers and even legal counsels.

Table of contents:

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Using the Part Datasheet
Chapter 3 Definitions and Rationale
Chapter 4 The Uprating Methodology
Chapter 5 Parameter Conformance
Chapter 6 Parameter Re-characterization
Chapter 7 Stress Balancing
Chapter 8 Assembly Level Testing
Chapter 9 Uprating Case Studies
Chapter 10 Uprating Facilities and Costs
Chapter 11 Assessing and Mitigating the Legal Risks
Chapter 12 Technical and Business Trends that Affect Uprating

ISBN 0-9707174-2-3
CALCE EPSC Press
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742

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