What is HALT/HASS Testing?
  • HALT Definition- Highly Accelerated Life Test
  • HASS Definition- Highly Accelerated Stress Screen

HALT & HASS are unique, accelerated product reliability testing methods focused on finding defects in products so they can be fixed before becoming expensive field issues.

  • Unique because these procedures are different from traditional design verification testing - different goals, different stresses, different results.
  • Accelerated, because these procedures reveal product failure modes in a matter of hours or days, as compared to traditional test methods that can take weeks or even months to find, if at all. Using these procedures is an effective way to improve product reliability and increase your revenue. You can achieve the highest level of customer satisfaction by ensuring your products are free from defects and other quality issues. ESPEC Qualmark Corporation offers Highly Accelerated Stress Screen and Highly Accelerated Life Testing services to help you maintain a solid reputation.

How They Work

HALT and HASS, collectively referred to as Accelerated Stress Testing (AST), subject a product to a series of overstresses, effectively forcing product weak links to emerge by accelerating fatigue. Unlike traditional single axis vibration test methods or thermal only methods, an AST program requires specialized HALT/HASS equipment to render the required stresses - random six-degree-of-freedom vibration and rapid thermal change rates - in the combined environment necessary to drive out latent failure modes.

In these procedures, stresses are applied in a controlled, incremental fashion while the unit under test is continuously monitored for failures. Once the weaknesses of the product are uncovered and corrective actions taken, the limits of the product are clearly understood and the operating margins have been extended as far as possible. Result? A much more mature product can be introduced much more quickly with a higher degree of reliability.

Why are They Important?

Reliability testing is necessary to ensure your products meet the standards and the expectations of consumers. HALT & HASS testing gives you peace of mind knowing that your products look and perform well before they reach the market. It’s a good way to earn customers’ trust and avoid costly effects of quality and reliability issues.

HASS HALT Product Reliability Testing Methods

Unlike DVT (Design Verification Testing), the purpose of HALT is to determine the operating and destruct limits of a design - why those limitations exist and what is required to increase those margins. HALT, therefore, stresses products beyond their design specifications.

HALT provides engineers with the opportunity to improve product design, increasing its robustness and minimizing possibility of costly warranty services and expensive product recalls after release.

Learn more about HALT testing >

Learn more about HASS testing >