Facing the headaches of early failures: A state-of-the-art review of burn-in decisions

System screening during electronic equipment manufacturing often cost-effective opportunities to remove and replace defective items. Burn-in is an important screening method used in predicting, achieving, and enhancing field reliability. Based on a simple calculation, we would expect the number of failures in the field to be a decreasing function of burn-in period. Especially, the expected number of failures drops significantly in the first part of the curve. Thus only a few hours of burn-in greatly reduces the failure rate, hence enhancing reliability. Qualitative studies on electronics burn-in have been done. It is well known that burn-in is costly. However, a comprehensive quantitative approach is lacking in the determination of optimal burn-in periods. This paper thoroughly reviews the studies of burn-in screenings applied to industrial products. Papers published in the past have been critically commented and systematically classified. This state-of-the-art review can serve as a guide in studying the burn-in problems.