Intermittent Fault Finding Strategies

AbstractIntermittent faults are regarded as the most difficult class of faults to diagnose and are cited as one of the main root causes of No Fault Found. There are a variety of technical issues relating to the nature of the fault which make identifying intermittent. This paper discusses some of these issues by introducing the concept of intermittent fault dynamics, modelling approaches and a selection of the state-of-the-art testing and diagnostic techniques and technologies

Intermittent fault diagnosis and health monitoring for electronic interconnects

Literature survey and correspondence with industrial sector shows that No-Fault-Found (NFF) is a major concern in through life engineering services, especially for defence, aerospace, and other transport industry. There are various occurrences and root causes that result in NFF events but intermittent interconnections are the most frustrating. This is because it disappears while testing, and missed out by diagnostic equipment. This thesis describes the challenging and most important area of intermittent fault detection and health monitoring that focuses towards NFF situation in electronics interconnections. After introduction, this thesis starts with literature survey and describes financial impact on aerospace and other transport industry. It highlights NFF technologies and discuss different facts and their impact on NFF. Then It goes into experimental study that how repeatedly intermittent fault could be replicated. It describes a novel fault replicator that can generate repeatedly IFs for further experimental study on diagnosis techniques/algorithms. The novel IF replicator provide for single and multipoint intermittent connection. The experimental work focuses on mechanically induced intermittent conditions in connectors. This work illustrates a test regime that can be used to repeatedly reproduce intermittency in electronic connectors whilst subjected to vibration ... [cont.]