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 IEC 62506
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INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION

COMMISSION
ELECTROTECHNIQUE
INTERNATIONALE

ICS 03.120.01, 21.020 ISBN 978-2-8322-7727-0

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® Registered trademark of the International Electrotechnical Commission

Marque déposée de la Commission Electrotechnique Internationale
 –2– IEC 62506:2023 © IEC 2023

CONTENTS
FOREWORD ........................................................................................................................... 5
INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 7
1 Scope .............................................................................................................................. 8
2 Normative references ...................................................................................................... 8
3 Terms, definitions, symbols and abbreviated terms .......................................................... 9
3.1 Terms and definitions .............................................................................................. 9
3.2 Symbols and abbreviated terms ............................................................................ 11
4 General description of the accelerated test methods ...................................................... 12
4.1 Cumulative damage model .................................................................................... 12
4.2 Classification, methods and types of test acceleration .......................................... 14
4.2.1 General ......................................................................................................... 14
4.2.2 Type A: qualitative accelerated tests ............................................................. 15
4.2.3 Type B: quantitative accelerated tests ........................................................... 15
4.2.4 Type C: quantitative time and event compressed tests ................................... 16
5 Accelerated test models ................................................................................................ 17
5.1 Type A, qualitative accelerated tests ..................................................................... 17
5.1.1 Highly accelerated limit tests (HALT) ............................................................. 17
5.1.2
5.1.3
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Highly accelerated stress test (HAST) ........................................................... 21
Highly accelerated stress screening or audit (HASS or HASA) ....................... 22
5.1.4
5.2
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Engineering aspects of HALT and HASS ....................................................... 23
Types B and C – Quantitative accelerated test methods........................................ 23
5.2.1
5.2.2
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Purpose of quantitative accelerated testing .................................................... 23
Physical basis for the quantitative accelerated Type B test methods .............. 23
5.2.3 Type C tests, time (C 1 ) and event (C 2 ) compression ..................................... 25
IEC 62506:2023
5.3 Failure mechanisms and test design ..................................................................... 27
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5.4 Determination of stress levels, profiles and combinations in use and test –
Stress modelling ................................................................................................... 27
5.4.1 General ......................................................................................................... 27
5.4.2 Step-by-step procedure ................................................................................. 28
5.5 Multiple stress acceleration methodology – Type B tests ....................................... 28
5.6 Single and multiple stress acceleration for Type B tests ........................................ 31
5.6.1 Single stress acceleration methodology ......................................................... 31
5.6.2 Stress models with stress varying as a function of time – Type B tests .......... 38
5.6.3 Stress models that depend on repetition of stress applications – Fatigue
models........................................................................................................... 40
5.6.4 Other acceleration models ............................................................................. 41
5.7 Acceleration of quantitative reliability tests............................................................ 42
5.7.1 Reliability requirements, goals, and use profile .............................................. 42
5.7.2 Accelerated testing for reliability demonstration or life tests ........................... 44
5.7.3 Testing of components for a reliability measure ............................................. 55
5.7.4 Reliability measures for components and systems ......................................... 56
5.8 Accelerated reliability compliance or evaluation tests ............................................ 57
5.9 Accelerated reliability growth testing ..................................................................... 58
5.10 Guidelines for accelerated testing ......................................................................... 59
5.10.1 Accelerated testing for multiple stresses and the known use profile ............... 59
5.10.2 Level of accelerated stresses ........................................................................ 59
5.10.3 Accelerated reliability and verification tests ................................................... 59
 IEC 62506:2023 © IEC 2023 –3–

6 Accelerated testing strategy in product development ..................................................... 60

6.1 Accelerated testing sampling plan ......................................................................... 60
6.2 General discussion about test stresses and durations ........................................... 60
6.3 Testing components for multiple stresses.............................................................. 61
6.4 Accelerated testing of assemblies ......................................................................... 61
6.5 Accelerated testing of systems .............................................................................. 61
6.6 Analysis of test results .......................................................................................... 62
7 Limitations of accelerated testing methodology .............................................................. 62
Annex A (informative) Highly accelerated limit test (HALT) .................................................. 63
A.1 HALT procedure .................................................................................................... 63
A.2 HALT step-by-step procedure ............................................................................... 63
A.3 Example 1 – HALT test results for a DC/DC converter........................................... 65
A.4 Example 2 – HALT test results for a medical item ................................................. 65
A.5 HALT test results for a Hi-Fi equipment ................................................................ 67
Annex B (informative) Accelerated reliability compliance and growth test design ................. 68
B.1 Use environment and test acceleration ................................................................. 68
B.2 Determination of stresses and stress duration ....................................................... 68
B.3 Overall acceleration of a reliability test .................................................................. 69
B.4 Example of reliability compliance test design assuming constant failure rate
or failure intensity ................................................................................................. 70
B.4.1 iTeh Standards
General ......................................................................................................... 70
B.4.2 Thermal cycling ............................................................................................. 71
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Thermal exposure, thermal dwell ................................................................... 72
B.4.4
B.4.5 Document Preview
Humidity ........................................................................................................ 72
Vibration test ................................................................................................. 73
B.4.6 Accelerations summary and overall acceleration ............................................ 73
B.5 Example of reliability compliance IEC 62506:2023
test design assuming non-constant failure
rate or failure intensity (wear-out) ......................................................................... 75
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Annex C (informative) Estimating the activation energy, E a .................................................. 76
Annex D (informative) Calibrated accelerated life testing (CALT) ......................................... 78
D.1 Purpose of test ..................................................................................................... 78
D.2 Test execution ...................................................................................................... 78
Annex E (informative) Example of how to estimate empirical factors .................................... 80
Annex F (informative) Determination of acceleration factors by testing to failure .................. 83
F.1 Failure modes and acceleration factors ................................................................. 83
F.2 Example of determination of acceleration factor .................................................... 83
Annex G (informative) Median rank tables 95 % rank ........................................................... 87
Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 89

Figure 1 – Probability density functions (PDF) for cumulative damage, degradation,

and test types ....................................................................................................................... 13
Figure 2 – Relationship of PDFs of the item strength versus load in use ............................... 18
Figure 3 – How HALT tests detect the design margin ............................................................ 19
Figure 4 – PDFs of operating and destruct limits as a function of applied stress ................... 20
Figure 5 – Line plot for Arrhenius reaction model .................................................................. 35
Figure 6 – Plot for determination of the activation energy ...................................................... 36
Figure 7 – Bathtub curve ....................................................................................................... 47
 –4– IEC 62506:2023 © IEC 2023

Figure 8 – Test planning with a Weibull distribution............................................................... 50

Figure 9 – Example of a test based on the Weibull distribution .............................................. 51
Figure 10 – Life time and "tail" of the failure rate or failure intensity ...................................... 52
Figure 11 – Reliability as a function of life time ratio L v and number of test items ................. 53
Figure 12 – Nomogram for test planning ............................................................................... 54
Figure A.1 – How FMEA and HALT supplement each other ................................................... 63
Figure C.1 – Plotting failures to estimate the activation energy E a ........................................ 77
Figure E.1 – Weibull graphical data analysis ......................................................................... 81
Figure F.1 – Weibull plot of the three data sets ..................................................................... 84

Table 1 – Test types mapped to the item development cycle ................................................. 14

Table A.1 – Comparison between classical accelerated tests and HALT tests ....................... 63
Table A.2 – Summary of HALT results for a DC/DC converter ............................................... 65
Table A.3 – Summary of HALT results for a medical system ................................................. 66
Table A.4 – Summary of HALT results for a Hi-Fi equipment ................................................. 67
Table B.1 – Environmental stress conditions of an automotive electronic device ................... 70
Table E.1 – Probability of failure of test samples A and B ..................................................... 81

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Table F.1 – Voltage test failure data for Weibull distribution .................................................. 83
Table G.1 – Median rank tables 95 % rank ............................................................................ 87
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 IEC 62506:2023 © IEC 2023 –5–

INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION

____________

METHODS FOR PRODUCT ACCELERATED TESTING

FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
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IEC 62506 has been prepared by IEC technical committee 56: Dependability. It is an
International Standard.

This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition published in 2013. This edition
constitutes a technical revision.

This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the previous
edition:

a) references have been updated;

b) symbols have been revised;
c) errors in 5.7.2.3 and Annex B, mainly, have been corrected;
d) calculation errors in the examples of Annex B and Annex F have been corrected.
 –6– IEC 62506:2023 © IEC 2023

The text of this International Standard is based on the following documents:

Draft Report on voting

56/2000/FDIS 56/2016/RVD

Full information on the voting for its approval can be found in the report on voting indicated in
the above table.

The language used for the development of this International Standard is English.

This document was drafted in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, and developed in
accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 and ISO/IEC Directives, IEC Supplement, available
at www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs. The main document types developed by IEC are
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 IEC 62506:2023 © IEC 2023 –7–

INTRODUCTION

Many reliability or failure investigation test methods have been developed and most of them are
currently in use. These methods are used to either determine product reliability or to identify
potential product failure modes, and have been considered effective as demonstrations of
reliability:

• fixed duration,
• sequential probability ratio,
• reliability growth tests,
• tests to failure, etc.

Such tests, although very useful, are usually lengthy, especially when the product reliability that
has to be demonstrated is high. The reduction in time-to-market periods as well as competitive
product cost, increase the need for efficient and effective accelerated testing. Here, the tests
are shortened through the application of increased stress levels or by increasing the speed of
application of repetitive stresses, thus facilitating a quicker assessment and growth of product
reliability through failure mode discovery and mitigation.

There are two distinctly different approaches to reliability activities:

• the first approach verifies, through analysis and testing, that there are no potential failure
modes in the product that are likely to be activated during the expected life time of the

•
iTeh Standards
product under the expected operating conditions and usage profile;
the second approach estimates how many failures can be expected after a given time under
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Accelerated testing is a method appropriate for both cases, but used quite differently. The first
qualitative accelerated testing, where the goal is identification of
potential faults that eventually can result in product field failures. The second approach is
associated with quantitative accelerated testing where the product reliability may be estimated
IEC 62506:2023
based on the results of accelerated simulation testing that can be related back to the use of the
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environment and usage profile.

Accelerated testing can be applied to multiple levels of items containing hardware and software.
Different types of reliability testing, such as fixed duration, sequential test-to-failure, success
test, reliability demonstration, or reliability growth or improvement tests can be candidates for
accelerated methods. This document provides guidance on selected, commonly used
accelerated test types. This document should be used in conjunction with statistical test plan
standards such as IEC 61123, IEC 61124, IEC 61649 and IEC 61710.

The relative merits of various methods and their individual or combined applicability in
evaluating a given system or item, should be reviewed by the product design team (including
reliability engineering) prior to selection of a specific test method or a combination of methods.
For each method, consideration should also be given to the test time, results produced,
credibility of the results, data required to perform meaningful analysis, life cycle cost impact,
complexity of analysis and other identified factors.

In this document the term "item" is used as defined in IEC 60050-192 covering physical products
as well as software. Services and people are however not covered by this document.
 –8– IEC 62506:2023 © IEC 2023

METHODS FOR PRODUCT ACCELERATED TESTING

1 Scope

This document provides guidance on the application of various accelerated test techniques for
measurement or improvement of item reliability. Identification of potential failure modes that
can be experienced in the use of an item and their mitigation is instrumental to ensure
dependability of an item.

The object of the methods is to either identify potential design weakness or provide information
on item reliability, or to achieve necessary reliability and availability improvement, all within a
compressed or accelerated period of time. This document addresses accelerated testing of non-
repairable and repairable systems. It can be used for probability ratio sequential tests, fixed
duration tests and reliability improvement/growth tests, where the measure of reliability can
differ from the standard probability of failure occurrence.

This document also extends to present accelerated testing or production screening methods
that would identify weakness introduced into the item by manufacturing error, which can
compromise item reliability. Services and people are however not covered by this document.

2 Normative references iTeh Standards

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The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies.
For undated references, Document
the latest edition of Preview
the referenced document (including any
amendments) applies.

IEC 62506:2023
IEC 60050-192 – International Electrotechnical Vocabulary (IEV) – Part 192: Dependability,
available at http://www.electropedia.org
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IEC 60300-3-5, Dependability management – Part 3-5: Application guide – Reliability test
conditions and statistical test principles

IEC 60605-2, Equipment reliability testing – Part 2: Design of test cycles

IEC 60721 (all parts), Classification of environmental conditions

IEC 61123:2019, Reliability testing – Compliance test plans for success ratio

IEC 61124:2023, Reliability testing – Compliance tests for constant failure rate and constant
failure intensity

IEC 61649:2008, Weibull analysis

IEC 61709, Electric components – Reliability – Reference conditions for failure rates and stress
models for conversion

IEC 61710, Power law model – Goodness-of-fit tests and estimation methods

IEC 62429, Reliability growth – Stress testing for early failures in unique complex systems
 IEC 62506:2023 © IEC 2023 –9–

3 Terms, definitions, symbols and abbreviated terms

3.1 Terms and definitions

For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in IEC 60050-192 and the
following apply.

ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following
addresses:

• IEC Electropedia: available at https://www.electropedia.org/

• ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp
NOTE Symbols for reliability, availability and maintainability measures follow those of IEC 60050-192, where
available.

3.1.1
activation energy
Ea
empirical factor for estimating the acceleration caused by a change in absolute temperature

Note 1 to entry: Activation energy is usually measured in electron volts per degree Kelvin.

3.1.2
detection screen
iTeh Standards
low stress level exposure to detect intermittent faults

3.1.3
event compression
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increasing stress repetition frequency to be at considerably higher levels than it is in the field

3.1.4
highly accelerated limit test IEC 62506:2023
HALT
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test or sequence of tests intended to identify the most likely failure modes of the product in a
defined stress environment

Note 1 to entry: HALT is sometimes spelt out as the highly accelerated life test (as it was originally named in error).
However, as a non-measurable accelerated test, it does not provide information on life duration, but on the magnitude
of stress which represents the limit of the design.

3.1.5
highly accelerated stress audit
HASA
process monitoring tool where a sample from a production lot is tested to detect potential
weaknesses in a product caused by manufacturing

3.1.6
highly accelerated stress screening
HASS
screening intended to identify latent defects in a product caused by manufacturing process or
control errors
 – 10 – IEC 62506:2023 © IEC 2023

3.1.7
item
subject being considered

Note 1 to entry: The item may be an individual part, component, device, functional unit, equipment, subsystem, or
system.

Note 2 to entry: The item may consist of hardware, software, people or any combination thereof.

Note 3 to entry: The item is often comprised of elements that may each be individually considered. See "sub-item"
(IEV 192-01-02) and "indenture level" (IEV 192-01-05).

Note 4 to entry: IEC 60050-191:1990 (now withdrawn; replaced by IEC 60050-192:2015) identified the term "entity"
as an English synonym, which is not true for all applications.

Note 5 to entry: The definition for "item" in IEC 60050-191:1990 (now withdrawn; replaced by IEC 60050-192:2015)
is a description rather than a definition. This new definition provides meaningful substitution throughout this
document. The words of the former definition form the new Note 1 to entry.

Note 6 to entry: In this document people and services are excluded.

[SOURCE: IEC 60050-192:2015, 192-01-01, modified – Note 6 to entry has been added.]

3.1.8
life time
<of a non-repairable item> time interval from first use until user requirements are no longer met

Note 1 to entry:
iTeh Standards
The end of life time is usually called failure of the component.

Note 2 to entry: The end of life is often defined as the time where a specified percentage of the components have

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failed, for example stated as a B 10 or L 10 value for 10 % accumulated failures.

3.1.9
precipitation screen Document Preview
screening profile to precipitate, through failure, conversion of latent faults into revealed faults

3.1.10
IEC 62506:2023
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step-stress test
test in which the applied stress is increased, after each specified interval, until failure occurs or
a predetermined stress level is reached

Note 1 to entry: The ‘interval’ could be specified in terms of number of stress applications, durations, or test
sequences.

Note 2 to entry: The test should not alter the basic failure modes, failure mechanisms, or their relative prevalence.

[SOURCE: IEC 60050-192:2015,192-09-10]

3.1.11
test acceleration factor
ratio of the stress response rate of the test specimen under the accelerated conditions, to the
stress response rate under specified operational conditions

Note 1 to entry: Both stress response rates refer to the same time interval in the life of the tested items.

Note 2 to entry: Measures of stress response rate are, for example, operating time to failure, failure intensity, and
rate of wear.

[SOURCE: IEC 60050-192:2015,192-09-09]

3.1.12
time compression
removal of exposure time at low or deemed non damaging stress levels from a test for the
purpose of acceleration
 IEC 62506:2023 © IEC 2023 – 11 –

3.2 Symbols and abbreviated terms

ADT accelerated degradation test(ing)
AF acceleration, acceleration factor
AF Test overall acceleration in a test
CALT calibrated accelerated life testing
B 10 life time, the time where 10 % of the items have failed
C confidence
CD compact disc player in a HiFi equipment
DL destruct limit
DSL design specification limit
FIT failure in time (failure per 10 9 hours)
HALT highly accelerated limit test
HASA highly accelerated stress audit
HASS highly accelerated stress screening test
HAST highly accelerated stress test
L load
Lv life time ratio
LDL lower destruct limit iTeh Standards
LDT lower destruct temperature
LOL (https://standards.iteh.ai)
lower operating limit
LOT
LRTL
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lower operating temperature
lower reliability test limit
MTBF mean operating time between failures
IEC 62506:2023
MTTF mean operating time to failure
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OL operating limit
OVL operation vibration limit
PA acceptance probability
PDF probability density functions
PWB printed wiring board
R(t) reliability as a function of time; probability of survival to the time t
RTL reliability test level
S strength
SL specification limit
SPRT sequential probability ratio test
t0 time denoted time 0
tL a specified time, e.g. life
THB temperature humidity bias test
TTF time to failure
UDL upper destruct limit
UDT upper destruct temperature
UOL upper operating limit
UOT upper operating temperature
 – 12 – IEC 62506:2023 © IEC 2023

URTL upper reliability test limit

UUT unit under test
VDL vibration destruct limit
λ (S) failure rate as a function of a stress
λ (t) failure rate as a function of time

4 General description of the accelerated test methods

4.1 Cumulative damage model

Accelerated testing of any type is based on the cumulative damage principle. The stresses of
the item in its life cause progressive damage that accumulates throughout the item life. This
damage can, or not, result in an item’s failure in the field.

The strategy of any type of accelerated testing is to produce, by increasing stress levels during
testing, cumulative damage equivalent to that expected in the item’s life for the type of expected
stress. The determination of item destruct limits, without reliability estimation, provides
information on whether there exists a sufficient margin between those destruct limits and item
specification limits, thus providing assurance that the item will survive its predetermined life
period without failure related to that specific stress type. This technique can, but not
necessarily, quantify a probability of item survival for its life, and just provides assurance that
the necessary adjustments in item strength would help eliminate such failure in item use. Where
iTeh Standards
sufficient margins are determined unrelated to the probability of survival, the type of test is
qualitative. In tests where this probability of survival is determined, the magnitude of the stress
is correlated to the probability that the item would survive that stress type beyond the
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predetermined life, and this test type is quantitative.

accelerated tests.
Document
Figure 1 depicts the principle Preview
of cumulative damage in both qualitative and quantitative

IEC
In Figure 1, for simplicity, all stresses, 62506:2023
operating limits, destruct limits, etc. are shown as
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absolute values. The specification values for an item are usually given in both extremes, upper
and lower, thus the upper and lower (or low) specification limit, USL and LSL with the
corresponding design limits (DSL), UDL and LDL, the upper and lower operating limits, UOL
and LOL, and also the reliability test limits, URTL and LRTL. The rationale is that the opposite
(negative stresses), can also cause cumulative damage probably with a different failure
mechanism, thus the relationship between the expected and specified limits can be illustrated
in the same manner as for the high or positive stress. As an example, cold temperature
extremes can produce the same or different failure modes in an item. To avoid clutter, the
positive and the negative thermal or any other stresses are not separately shown in Figure 1,
thus the magnitudes of stresses are either positive or negative, and thus represented as
absolute values only as upper or lower limits.