Reliability Blog

There can be a lot of confusion in the reliability field when we all start talking about regular activities that have taken on acronyms for their real names. We hope this list will help those who are new to reliability.

AFR – Actual Failure Rate
AFR – Annualized Failure Rate or Average Failure Rate
ALT – Accelerated Life Testing
ANOVA – Analysis of Variance
AQL – Acceptable Quality Level
ASME – American Society of Mechanical Engineers
ASP – Authorized Service Provider
ASQ – American Society of Quality
ASTR – Accelerated Stress Testing and Reliability
AVL – Approved Vendor List
CAD – Computer Aided Design
CAF – Conductive Anodic Filament
CALCE – Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (part ofUniversityofMaryland)
CAPA – Corrective and Preventive Action
CAR – Corrective Action Report or Request
CDF – Cumulative Distribution Function
CFD – Computational Fluid Dynamics
CLCA – ClosedLoopCorrective Action
CM – Contract Manufacturer
COL – Cold Operating Limit (see also LOL)
COTS – Commercial-off-the-Shelf
CPK – Process Capability
CQE – Certified Quality Engineer
CRE – Certified Reliability Engineer
CRM – Customer Relational Management
CTQ – Critical to Quality
DFM – Design for Manufacturability
DFR – Design for Reliability
DFW – Design for Warranty
DIP – Dual Inline Package
DOA – Dead on Arrival
DOD – Department of Defense
DOE – Design of Experiments
DTIC – DefenseTechnicalInformationCenter
DVT – Design Verification Test
ECAP – Electronic Circuit Analysis Program
ECO – Engineering Change Order
EDA – Electronic Design Automation
EMC – Electro Magnetic Compatibility
EMI – Electromagnetic Interference
EMS – Electronic Manufacturing Service
EOL – End-of-Life
EOS – Electrical Overstress
ERT – Early Reliability Testing
ESD – Electrostatic Discharge
ESR – Equivalent Series Resistance
FAR – Failure Analysis Report or Request
FEA – Finite Element Analysis
FET – Field Effect Transistor
FIT – Failure in Time
FLT – Fundamental Limit of Technology
FMEA – Failure Mode and Effects Analysis
FMEA – Failure Modes and Effects Analysis
FMECA – Failure Modes Effects and Criticality Analysis
FRACAS Failure Review Analysis and Corrective Action System
FRB – Failure Review Board
FTA – Fault Tree Analysis
FTIR – Fourier Transform Infrared
FYM – First Year Multiplier
GRMS – Gravity Root Mean Squared
HALT – Highly Accelerated Life Test
HASA – Highly Accelerated Stress Audit
HASS – Highly Accelerated Stress Screen
HDD – Hard Disk Drive
HOL – High Operating Limit (also see UOL)
IC – Integrated Circuit
IEEE – Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers
IP – Intellectual Property
IT – Information Technology
KHZ – Kilohertz
KSLOC – Kilo Source Lines of Code
LCC – Life Cycle Cost
LDL – Lower Destruct Limit
LMM – Lumped Mass Model
LOL – Lower Operating Limit (see alsoCOL)
LTPD – Lot Tolerance Percent Defective
MOS – Metal Oxide Semiconductor
MRB – Material Review Board
MSD – Mean SquareDeviation
MTBF – Mean Time Between Failure
MTTR – Mean Time to Repair
NPF – No Problem Found
NRE – Nonrecurring Engineer
NSF – National Science Foundation
ODM – Original Design Manufacturer
OEM – Original Equipment Manufacturer
OOBA – Out of Box Audit
ORT – On-Going Reliability Test
PATCA – Professional and Technical Consultants Association
PCB – Printed Circuit Board
PHM – Prognostic and Health Management
PLC – Product Life Cycle
PLM – Product Lifecycle Management
PM – Preventive Maintenance
POF – Physics of Failure
POS – Proof of Screen
PPM – Parts Per Million
PRG – Product Realization Group
PRN – Product Realization Network
PRST – Probability Ratio Sequential Testing
PTH – Plated Through Hole
QA – Quality Assurance
QC – Quality Control
QPL – Qualified Products List
RCA – Root Cause Analysis
RDT – Reliability Demonstration Test
RIAC – Reliability Information Analysis Center
RoHS – Restriction of Hazardous Substances
ROI – Return on Investment
RPIP – Reliability Program and Integration Plan
RPM – Reliability Planning and Management
RPN – Risk Priority Number
RPP – Reliability Program Plan
RTP – Reliability Test Plan
S-N – Stress Versus Number of Cycles Relationship
S/N – Signal-to-Noise
SCA – Sneak Circuit Analysis
SDFR – Software Design for Reliability
SEM – Scanning Electron Microscope
SFMEA – Software Failure Modes and Effects Analysis
SFTA – Software Fault Tree Analysis
SME – Society of Manufacturing Engineer
SPICE – Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis
SRC – SystemReliabilityCenter
TGA – Thermo-Gravimetric Analysis
TMA – Thermo-Mechanical Analysis
TRIAC – Triode for Alternating Current
TW – Time to Wearout
UDL – Upper Destruct Limit
UOL – Upper Operating Limit (also see HOL)
USB – Universal Serial Bus
VDL – Vibration Destruct Limit
VOL – Vibration Operating Limit
XRF – X-Ray Fluorescence