Glossary

Burn-in is a sequence of thermal, environmental, electrical and/or mechanincal constraints applied to a component or an electronic board in production.
The benefit of burn-in testing is to screen infant mortality of a component or of an electronic board (intrinsic to constituents or consequence of the production processus) by showing failures in production rather than in the field.

Two types of bun-in exist :

• Classic burn-in (or "Storage in temperature") which consists in subjecting materials to a constant hot temperature during a defined period of time.

• HASS (Highly Accelerated Stress Screening) burn-in which consists in subjecting a component or an electronic board to aggravated constraints in order to eradicate its weakness and, therfore, increase its reliability.

An environmental chamber is a volume in which different environmental conditions are recreated in order to test the resistance and/or the reactions of products to these constraints.
The environmental chamber can recreate environments of heat, of cold, of humidity, of "sea side" (salt spray).
Associated to a vibrating pot, an environmental chamber will enable to generate vibrations tests, combined with temperature tests.
The volume of an environmental chamber can varied from 55 litres to 1400 litres, as standard, and to 100 m³ as special.

The object of environmental simulation testing is to establish the ability of products or materials to function within specified limits of temperature, pressure, humidity, mechanical constraints, electrical constraints or other environment conditions. The ability to bear certain combinaisons of these conditions as well as storage or transportation is also evaluated.

A thermal shock environmental chamber is used to subject products to ultra-fast variations of temperature in order to test their resistance or lifespan.

CLIMATS thermal shocks are composed of 2 cabinets (one hot and one cold) - or of 3 cabinets (one hot, one ambiant and one cold) - and of a mobile transfer basket that contains products.