RELIABILITY MEANS SO MUCH MORE THAN TESTING

摘要

The design of any high-tech product is a long process and this is especially true in the optical transceiver and interconnectivity business. Often overlooked, however, is the crucial role played by the designer in ensuring a product's reliability. Crucial because irrespective of how well a product works, or how advanced the design, without reliability, the product is effectively worthless. There are a large number of firms out there in the industry capable of making functioning optical transceivers, but not so many can make reliable ones. Reliability embodies not only a product's ability to function but also a product that works without risk of failure for a long period of time. For instance, 'carrier class' products are often required to operate for as long as 20 years. Of course it is not possible to test it for such a long time, so accelerated aging and statistical analysis are often used to shorten the process which still can take up to seven months.