Reliability modeling and failure analysis of a biotelemetry data-recorder tag

Shafaat, Junaid (2009) Reliability modeling and failure analysis of a biotelemetry data-recorder tag. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[English] PDF - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Download (8MB)

Abstract

Biotelemetry tags are used widely by biologists throughout the world to research animal behaviour and patterns to sustain healthy environment. These instruments are microelectronics encapsulated in plastic packages for environment protection and attached to the animal. Physiological data of animal body and environmental conditions in terms of temperature and pressure is recorded on the on-board memory of the data-recorder tags and can only be retrieved when the tag is retrieved back from the animal. These tags are usually deployed for long missions and usually contain information that is recorded over years, in some cases, is very valuable to scientists and thus makes it very important for these microelectronic devices to have high Reliability. There is a lot of information on consumer electronics product but little known about these microelectronic devices as they sustain harsh environments and conditions which is not required by consumer electronics. This thesis is an attempt to conduct Reliability analysis of such biotelemetry devices and provide methodology for other similar biotelemetry microelectronic devices. -- This thesis comprises of two parts; first part of the thesis deals with the weibull analysis of the failure data obtained from field and also understanding of component based Reliability analysis. During this process Fault Tree Analysis, Weibull Analysis and component criticality analysis was conducted. -- Second part of the thesis focused on design failures as pointed out by first part of the thesis. This led to the qualification of the components and the packaging reliability by comprehensive analysis, experiments and calculations to evaluate each critical component of the product which failed at early mortality stage as pointed out by bathtub curve. During these analysis actual environments were simulated which is these products are designed for. -- This research brings in to focus the need for a better packaging design and extensive accelerated testing of product, considering this a non-repairable system, before qualifying moulding materials and electronic components to achieve high Reliability of the system.

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