We've all heard about product life testing; but, what the heck is HALT?
Today, it is essential that companies introduce new products that are robust
and mature. New products must be more reliable than their predecessors. Design
weaknesses must be identified and corrected before the product ships, before manufacture.
HALT has helped SSD Drives achieve
that goal. HALT stands for Highly Accelerated
Life Testing. It is an important part of the R&D process. The words "highly
accelerated" are key as they allow life testing to occur during product design
rather than after the product is sold, the more traditional way of life testing.
How does it work? Once R&D have a design concept, several units are manufactured
for design review and product testing. At least one of these prototype units is
slated for the HALT.
The HALT
concept consists of three distinct test phases :
• low temperature
• high temperature
• vibration
Low and high temperature
testing is performed in a custom made cabinet designed for running SSD Drives
products. The vibration testing is done
on a specialized vibration table.
 The low temperature
phase is run first. Starting at room temperature, the unit is fully loaded and
run for one hour. After one hour, the temperature is decreased by 10 °C. Once
the temperature stabilizes, it is tested for another hour. This process continues
until a part fails.
When a part fails, the technician applies a "band-aid"
to the fault and then continues the low temperature HALT
test. This cycle continues until the limit (-50 °C) of the HALT
chamber is reached.
HALT Test Chamber
Next, the high temperature
phase is run on the test unit. Once again, the test begins at room temperature
and is run under full load for one hour. The temperature is increased by 10 °C
and, after stabilizing, tested for another hour. This process continues until
a part fails, and once again the technician applies a "band-aid" to
the fault and then continues the HALT test.
This cycle continues until the limit (+200 °C) of the HALT
chamber is reached.
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In many cases the drive continues to run even after the plastic has completely
melted!
Several survivors of the HALT temperature test
Vibration testing is
the final phase. The test is like driving very fast in a go-cart on a very bumpy
gravel road. The test drive is mounted to a vibration table and subjected to extreme
vibration in the X, Y and Z planes. After being subjected to an initial force
of one "G", the vibration force continues to escalate in increments
of 1G up to 10G until something give
Vibration Test Rig
Finally, R&D engineering
analyzes all of the HALT data. They review
the point of failures and the "band-aids" that were used and determine
what changes, if any, are warranted.
HALT
Encourages Component Failures!
If the drive does not fail, we cannot
be entirely certain of the weak points a design might contain.
We subject the drive to elements that far and away exceed normal operating conditions
in order that we can identify potential problem spots and ensure that you,
our customer, continue to receive the highest quality drives in the industry. |
