Testing for reliability-relevant or misleading?

Summary form only given. The semiconductor content of electronic systems has increased strongly in the last three decades. It is expected that the performance and functionality of these semiconductors will continue to increase, according to some version of Moore´s Law, while costs (as measured per gate or per bit) will continue to fall. What has also become expected, although it is not often stated explicitly, is that electronics reliability must continue to improve. Manufacturers of electronic systems will have to provide this improved reliability or risk losing their customers to competition; and given the rapidly increasing semiconductor content in these systems, it is natural to anticipate that the semiconductor suppliers should be playing a significant role in this endeavour. This article discusses what this role should be, and how it should be defined