Patent ID: 6856939

Claim:
A method for determining a fractional failure rate in an electronic system, the method comprising: identifying a fault in the electronic system; determining a list of signal connections associated with the fault, wherein the signal connections are present on a first component of a first unit and a second component of a second unit; determining a unit fractional failure rate for the first unit; determining a unit fractional failure rate for the second unit, wherein the unit fractional rate for each of the first and second units includes a component fractional failure rate, a connector fractional failure rate, and a circuit carrier fractional failure rate, and wherein determining the connector fractional failure rate for the first unit includes calculating a ratio of the signal connections associated with the fault to a number of active pins on a connector of the first unit and, wherein determining the connector fractional failure rate for the second unit includes calculating the ratio of the signal connections associated with the fault to a number of active pins on a connector of the second unit; adding the fractional failure rate for the first unit and the fractional failure rate for the second unit to obtain a system fractional failure rate.