Ask Dr. Adam – Discovering Reliability Series, Part 4: What are Latent Currents?
Part 4: This episode of the Discovering Reliability series on Ask Dr. Adam, Dr. Adam discusses latent currents and how preliminary electronics testing methods provide a snapshot of the functionality of an assembly but don’t fully reflect the threat of reliability issues that may stem from latent currents after the assembly is put to use in a real-world environment.
He highlights test methods like Surface Insulation Resistence or (SIR) as more complete methods of testing, as they utilize conditions that are closer to the environments that finished electronic assemblies will operate within.