No-fault-found and intermittent failures in electronic products

This paper reviews the possible causes and effects for no-fault-found observations and intermittent failures in electronic products and summarizes them into cause and effect diagrams. Several types of intermittent hardware failures of electronic assemblies are investigated, and their characteristics and mechanisms are explored. One solder joint intermittent failure case study is presented. The paper then discusses when no-fault-found observations should be considered as failures. Guidelines for assessment of intermittent failures are then provided in the discussion and conclusions.