The future of reliability is bright as each electronics company is spending 1–5% of their annual sales on cost of non-quality. These costs are related to product failures prior to the end of its warranty period. If even a portion of these costs are reduced, it would result in a substantial profit increase. Progress in the area of reliability can be found in five directions; (i) multi-scale and multi-physics simulations for physics of degradation; (ii) AI-based control systems in advanced production; (iii) smart sensoring and big data analysis; (iv) reliable materials and reliability testing; and (v) prognostics and health management/digital twin for condition monitoring. In this chapter, we discuss these directions and what it would mean for the future developments of the reliability domain.

In this chapter, the past and present situations of the reliability domain are discussed. As of today, most industries are in the transfer from test-to-pass approaches to more advanced strategies. These strategies currently are to determine the reliability capability by applying (where possible) the test-to-failure concept, extending reliability qualification conformance tests beyond the required levels, and assessing any physical or electrical degradation of a product during those tests. New concepts are under investigation that focus on the physics of degradation. Progress in the area of reliability will never stop so as to reduce the amount (and cost) of product field failures.