Qualification and Reliability Standards for Photonic Component Technologies

From optoelectronics commercial systems through aerospace applications, new technologies based equipment must be designed taking into account reliability risks. Existing qualification standards and processes have been developed from field return "lessons learned". The qualification methods have been built-up to take into account questions and concerns observed on previous well established processes. Is this approach applicable to new products and materials? How will new optoelectronic technologies, nanotechnologies, and new packaging techniques perform when tested under conditions defined in existing standards? Are the Aerospace and Military standards adequate to validate long term application and proof of reliability for the new devices? What is missing, and what is needed? Should we modify the methodology for qualifying new parts based on these innovative technologies? What is needed for implementing efficiently and just in time High Reliability application processes? Evolving methodology may be one solution but must be constructed based on results of experiments from FOAT (Failure Oriented Accelerated Testing) and QT (Qualification Testing) for new technologies. This presentation gives an overview of general issues of microelectronics when employed in harsh environments (electrical, optical, thermal, mechanical, radiation). Understanding the need, defining goals, accumulating field failure data, developing reliability models and educating our customers is a recommended approach to develop comprehensive FOAT and QT programs.