Quantitative FMEA automation

By providing a structured approach for considering potential failures and their effects, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is an important process applied to the development of reliable and maintainable products (Refs. 2, 4). FMEA reports are used by design, test and diagnostic engineers, impacting products throughout their life cycle. FMEA automation promises to streamline the traditional (brainstorming) approach to performing an FMEA by aiding the FMEA reasoning process, helping to produce a report that is more timely, complete and consistent. Most of the published approaches to automating FMEA rely on qualitative simulators and produce a report that is most relevant early in the design cycle (Refs. 1, 5, 7). The software described here uses a quantitative simulator, producing results that are not only more accurate for designers, but are also more useful to test and diagnostics engineers. The result is a contribution to concurrent engineering efforts in the design, manufacture, and support of analog electronics that is not possible with tools based on qualitative simulators.