Reliability Demonstration Test Planning for Field Load Spectra – an Approach for Identifying the Optimal Test Parameters Considering Individual Cost and Time Constraints

Over the past decades, product development cycles have become shorter and shorter, with reliability requirements increasing while budgets for testing have decreased. To select a test that makes the best use of resources (cost and time) for reliability requirement with a sufficient level of confidence, a simulation is performed. In previous work by Herzig et al. [3] and Grundler et al. [4] the concept of Probability of Test Success $\left(P_{t s}\right)$ introduced by Dazer et al. [1] was applied. To improve the applicability of the test planning procedure, a load spectrum rather than a single field load level is now to be evaluated. This is necessary because many products are not subjected to a single field load, but to fluctuating conditions that have natural causes such as the seasons, time of day or individual users. Finally, a case study is evaluated for individual parameters of a test scenario to minimize test time and cost while maximizing $P_{t s}$.