Designing reliable boards

The makers of electronic hardware are boosting reliability by reducing the number of components that can fail while improving ruggedization for those circuit boards.

Networks, radar systems, and radios on today's planes are becoming smaller, making space for more functions while reducing failure points. Standard mechanical and electrical interconnection schemes have become critical for reliability in today's military aerospace world. When commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) circuit boards are plugged into a chassis to build a system, one of the keys to safe flights is simply maintaining signal integrity.

“A big part of reliability is the I/O. When you make a connection, you want to be sure it's going to be reliable in a rugged environment,” said Neil Harold, Technical Specialist at Nallatech.