[R-390] Ceramic Disc Caps Never Fail...

[Tisha Hayes]

I have seen instances of disk cap failures during mass production where
maybe the lead spacing was not ideal and the parts placing machine kind of
cracked the dipped part right where the lead goes into the capacitor body.
Some work fine while the board is on a test jig but fail after the solvent
bath or fail after system burn-in (our burn-in period was 10 days while the
device was in full operation). Maybe 1 in 20 telemetry packs would fail
after burn-in and get sent over to my department for one of my techs to
identify the specific component. Then I would try to look for trends and
root causes. The stack of paperwork on my desk would be from our repair
department where the techs would report on what components were bad on what
types of units.

I did catch some things that were bad... like that the plastic wrapped
tantalum capacitors that were part of the D/A converter circuit did not
like solvents so those had to be hand soldered after board cleaning.

The universe is moving to entropy where eventually everything will fail,
atoms will drift apart and the universe will be a cold, dark place. (only
happy thoughts for Christmas season <lol>).

I have yet to find any sort of never fail component. Some things may have
MTBF's of tens of thousands of hours.

Ordered Universe 4.999.., Chaos 5.001.... Chaos Wins by a landslide!

-- 
Ms. Tisha Hayes/ AA4HA
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*“But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the
greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without
tuition or restraint.”   Edmund Burke*