Discussion Group Summary Customer Reliability Requirements

According to most (1 1) of the participants the delivered reliability is on average improving. Only 5 thought that this is not the case. Again like the expectations this point of view may differ with respect to market segments or between large and small suppliers. Even in those cases where the reliability is stable with respect to a delivered IC it had increased because of the increasing complexity of todays ICs. Another aspect is that because of better reliability models and physical understanding on the supplier side the reliability safety margin although being smaller is better known. There was no clear statement whether the technical understanding of reliability issues is becoming more confused (6) stays constant (2) or is improved (7) on the customer side. So customer education and partnership at reliability items is still an important target especially for the small companies. The larger companies improved their knowledge a lot by taking on technical reliability experts. Nevertheless there is still a hstration with fickle customer standards as a customer argued about his colleagues.