NPL Webinar on Reliability and Fitness for Purpose Testing of Flexible and Wearable Electronics

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Wearable electronics encompass a wide area of devices, including those embedded as flexibles, hybrid-systems and textiles.

Typically, in the electronics industry, the reliability of electronic assemblies is tested using high humidity and high temperature as an accelerating factor. For many of the substrate materials involved, the use of high temperature is not appropriate to accelerate failure mechanisms to help predict device reliability.

Additionally, high temperature is not always reflective of typical (or harsh) operating conditions for wearables, so alternative suitable methods for testing these devices are being investigated. Typical measurements include flex/bend testing, washing machine durability tests, stretch and stress testing.

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is increasingly looking at methods for testing devices subjected to combinatorial harsh environments, where the test is composed of multiple stress factors which is more akin to real life use. Understanding the resulting failure modes observed from these tests is crucial for identifying the weak links limiting the device's reliability.

In line with this, NPL will be holding a webinar on reliability and fitness for purpose testing of flexible and wearable electronics on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, at 14:30 UTC.

To register, click here.