A Dependent Competing Risks Model for Technological Units Subject to Degradation Phenomena and Catastrophic Failures

This paper proposes a dependent competing risks model for the reliability analysis of technological units that are subject both to degradation phenomena and to catastrophic failures. The paper is mainly addressed to the reanalysis of real data presented in a previous work, which refer to some electronic devices subject to two failure modes, namely the light intensity degradation and the solder/Cu pad interface fracture, which in previous papers, were considered independent. The main reliability characteristics of the devices, such as the probability density functions, the cause-specific cumulative distribution function and hazard rate of each failure mode in the presence of both modes, are estimated. Likewise, the fraction of failures caused by each failure mode during the whole life of the devices or their residual life is derived. Finally, the results obtained under the proposed dependent competing risks model are compared to those obtained in previous papers. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.