Abstract
Today there is a trend towards placing sensors and electronics in more demanding environments with higher temperatures, pressure and vibrations. Distributed control systems in automotive and aerospace industry is one example, sensors and actuators for subsea and down-hole oil-well instrumentation is another. One of the main challenges is to obtain sufficient long term reliability, especially for remote locations were service and repair is no option. This presentation will address some of the important failure mechanisms for electronics in harsh environment and strategies for improving the reliability.