A major goal of this book is to show to make devices that are inherently reliable by design. While a lot of attention has been given to “quality improvement,” the majority of the emphasis has been placed on the processes that occur after the design of a product is complete. Design deficiencies are a significant problem, and can be exceedingly difficult to identify in the field. These types of quality problems can be addressed in the design phase with relatively little effort, and with far less expense than will be incurred later in the process. Unfortunately, there are many hardware designers and organizations that, for various reasons, do not understand the significance and expense of an unreliable design. The design methodology presented in this text is intended to address this problem.
