[History of CALCE] [Facilities and Capabilities ] [Accomplishments] [Expertise in Research Laboratory] [Software] [Scope of CALCE]
The Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE) is recognized as a founder and driving force behind the development and implementation of physics-of-failure (PoF) 
approaches to reliability, as well as a world leader in accelerated testing, electronic parts selection and management, and supply-chain management. CALCE is at the forefront of international standards development for critical electronic systems, having chaired the development of several reliability and part selection standards. CALCE is staffed by over 100 faculty, staff, and students. Collectively, CALCE researchers have authored over 35 internationally acclaimed textbooks and well over 1000 research publications relevant to electronics reliability.
History of CALCE:
In 1986, CALCE became a National Science Foundation Center of Excellence in Systems Reliability and is now an internationally recognized leader in reliability assessment of electronics based on PoF analysis and prognostics and health management (PHM). CALCE has grown into a consortium that receives millions of dollars of funding in research support and employs more than 100 faculty, research staff, and graduate students from most engineering disciplines. With the advent of newer, smaller, and greener technologies, CALCE has worked to help many companies migrate to new practices, which include transitions to plastic-encapsulated electronics (PEMs), surface mount technology (SMT), lead-free electronics, and the utilization of commercial consensus- based on industry standards. But in today’s fast-paced electronics industry, time-to-market is paramount and the use of PoF reliability modeling and virtual qualification can significantly shorten the time between design iterations. If a manufacturer’s product fails in the initial production phase or if that manufacturer ships a bad product with inherent design flaws, expenses increase drastically and the potential loss of customers can be extremely damaging. The ramifications of getting things wrong can be detrimental to a company.
Helping design engineers “get it right” in the early stages of product development is a tenet of CALCE's mission. To accomplish this, CALCE provides research and evidence to design for reliability. CALCE's PoF software and methodology have helped save millions of dollars for military and commercial programs by qualifying new technologies, demonstrating the reliability of new hardware, and troubleshooting existing warranty returns and field failures. Moreover, as new materials and processes are introduced into components and substrates, their impact on the product life cycle is being addressed at CALCE through testing and modeling using the principles of PoF and reliability science.
Facilities and Capabilities:
Since its inception, CALCE has provided a knowledge and resource base to support the development and sustainment of competitive electronic products and to identify and address tomorrow’s challenges today. These areas of research include:
- Physics of failure
- Component reliability
- Characterization of electronic materials
- Design for reliability and virtual qualification
- Accelerated testing
- Prognostics and health management
- Life cycle risk
- Cost analysis
- Supply chain assessment and management
CALCE has earned much of its international recognition for its breadth of expertise in developing accelerated life cycle testing methodologies for electronic parts and assemblies. Using one of the world’s most advanced and comprehensive testing and failure analysis laboratories, researchers at CALCE can create test methods that can effectively put many years’ worth of wear and damage on an electronic component controllably in a few days or weeks. After determining the relevant testing factors, CALCE can create conditions of high temperature, high humidity, vibration, shock and impact, electrical stresses, pressure, and radiation to test components.
Over the years, the TSFA Lab has expanded its facilities. Current capabilities include:
- Materials characterization including corrosion testing
- Thermal assessment and management
- Virtual qualification
- Opto-mechanics testing and analysis
- Environmental/accelerated testing
- Sample preparation and failure analysis
- Nondestructive evaluation
- Electronics testing and analysis
- Battery testing
CALCE was established to meet the needs of a growing electronics design and manufacturing industry. It has grown significantly, and can readily offer the latest resources and tools to help engineers assess, mitigate, and manage risks in electronic products. Its goal is to offer the highest quality research environment to our sponsors, and to provide the world's best knowledge base for building reliable, safe, and competitive electronic systems.
Accomplishments:
Throughout the years, CALCE has contributed to several IEEE standards for the implementation of prognostics and health management, and reliability prediction. CALCE faculty and staff have been honored with numerous awards for leadership in the development of PoF- and prognostics-based approaches to electronics reliability including:
- National Science Foundation Innovation Award for excellence and contributions to PHM and PoF.
- National Defense Industrial Association Systems Engineering Excellence Award for demonstrating outstanding achievement in the practical application of Systems Engineering principles, promotion of robust systems engineering principles throughout the organization, and effective systems engineering process development.
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Education Award for exceptional achievements in standards education activities, including IEEE P1413, P1332, and 1856-2017.
Individual faculty awards include:
- Prof. Pecht received the University of Maryland Innovation Award for new concepts in risk management, the IEEE Exceptional Technical Achievement Award for his innovations in the area of prognostics and systems health management, European Micro and Nano-Reliability Award for outstanding contributions to reliability research, and many others.
- Prof. Bongtae Han received the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) Mechanics award in ASME's Electronic and Photonic Packaging Division (EPPD) for excellence in the area of engineering and science of structural mechanics of electronic systems.
- Dr. Diganta Das received the Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA) Member of Technical Distinction award for his tireless contributions to the organization.
- Dr. Michael Osterman received the John Wagnon Technical Achievement Award for outstanding technical contributions to microelectronics technology.
- Prof. Dasgupta received the University System of Maryland (USM) Regent’s Faculty Award for excellence in scholarship.
- Prof. Patrick McCluskey received the Physical Science Invention of the Year Award for research in transient liquid phase high-temperature solder paste attach.
- Prof. Michael Ohadi received the USM Regent’s Faculty Award for Excellence in Innovation
- Prof. Christou received the Micro & Nano Scientific Society Award for contributions to the field of semiconductor research.
Other individual awards can be found on the professors' and research staff’s bio pages.
More than 300 alumni have completed their M.S. or Ph.D. with CALCE. Many have gone on to work for industry leaders throughout the world, including Army Research Labs, Apple, Black and Decker, Dell, Intel, Northrop Grumman, Phillips, Samsung, SanDisk, and some have continued to work at the forefront of PoF and PHM sciences in the CALCE labs and classrooms. Additionally, the Center offers on-site customized professional development courses, webinars, symposia, and workshops to education industry professionals and research partners.
The industrial and academic partners that make up the CALCE consortium guide much of CALCE’s research and promote research areas with an across-the-board impact on the industry. These partners include world leaders in aerospace, automotive, aviation, computer and mobile products, electronics, energy systems, industrial and military systems, and telecommunication companies.
Over the last 15 years, CALCE has invested over $75 million in developing methodologies, models, and tools that address the design, manufacture, analysis, and management of electronic systems. CALCE is funded annually at approximately 6 million dollars US. CALCE has research agreements with Robert Bosch, General Motors, Collins Aerospace, Bae, Honeywell, Dell, Samsung, Rolls Royce, and Beijing Yuntong Forever Sci-Tech. Co. LTD, General Electric, Schlumberger, Stryker, Moog, Microsoft, Universal Global Scientific Industrial, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited, Lockheed Martin, Keysight, and Harris.
Expertise in Research Laboratory:
CALCE has one of the world’s most sophisticated facilities for testing and failure analysis of electronic products and systems. Labs include environmental testing, material measurement, and failure analysis laboratories for electronic products and systems. Environmental test chambers include temperature humidity, temperature cycling, highly accelerated stress testing chambers, mixed flowing gas test chambers, and a highly accelerated life test (HALT) chamber and a mixed flow gas test chamber. The test chambers allow CALCE to subject electronic equipment to controlled environmental conditions while monitoring product performance. CALCE offers a wide range of environmental testing chambers where the temperature and humidity can be precisely controlled to investigate the impact of various environments on electronic products and systems. Material characterization includes Fourier Transform Infrared spe CALCE labs have been used to conduct several million dollars of test and failure analysis for over 150 organizations worldwide including Northrup Grumman, Bombardier, General Dynamics, General Motors, Honeywell, Keysight, Apple, Amazon, Samsung, Black and Decker, Milwaukee Tools, Vertiv.
Software:
CALCE has developed simulation-assessed reliability assessment (SARA) software to support the design and test of electronic hardware. The SARA software is used to support the CALCE Design for Reliability (DfR) assessment process, which allows design engineers to interactively make design changes and rapidly assess the impact of product reliability. The SARA software can be used to assess life expectancy of electronic hardware under anticipated life cycle loading conditions, as well as under accelerated stress test conditions. The assessment of life expectancy under anticipated life cycle loading conditions is referred to as the virtual qualification (VQ) process. The software provides a user interface to import computer-aided design information for printed circuit cards to generate a model for conducting thermal analysis and dynamic response analysis. With the computer model and results from thermal and dynamic response analyses, the life expectancy of a design can be assessed based on the evaluation of up to 50 failure models. The life assessment allows for material, geometry, and loading distribution and can provide a distribution of life expectancy based on defined life cycle loading. The software is effecting in reducing time to market and eliminating failures in the design validation and verification process. The US Army reported a cost avoidance of over 27 million dollars based on CALCE SARA analysis. The software has been used by and for organizations including US Army, Boeing, Honeywell, Collins Aerospace, Northrup Grumman, NASA, General Motors, Ford, Dell, Robert Bosch, Grunfos, Schlumberger, GE Baker Hughes, and Orbital Sciences.
Scope of International Collaboration for CALCE:
CALCE has collaboration agreements with tens of international universities and has over time performed research and published with more than a hundred university and industry researchers. It has a history of welcoming, collaborating with, and mentoring international researchers at all levels from internships to visiting faculty. CALCE faculty, staff, and students have benefited greatly from the insights gained from visiting scientists from industry and academia. In addition to frequent presentations and meetings with top leaders in the global electronics industry, CALCE frequently hosts expert faculty and scientists for longer stays. During their time here, these visiting scholars mentor students, share their expertise in classrooms and in the lab, and collaborate on publications and experiments.
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