A method of testability analysis and design based on FMEA extension

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is widely accepted and used in many engineering fields as a common method of failure analysis. Also, FMEA is expected to extend its capabilities from traditional applications. This paper focuses on functional extension of FMEA in testability. Traditional FMEA is a qualitative analytical method, while testability needs quantitative analysis, which makes it difficult to apply traditional FMEA method directly on testability analysis and design. Accordingly, this paper proposes a method of testability analysis and design based on functional extension of FMEA. Firstly, characteristics of traditional FMEA method and testability analytical method are compared in this paper to find out the difference and the connection, and then the feasibility of FMEA extension in testability is put forward. Secondly, the corresponding extension method is put forward combining with the parameters of structural and functional state, and inference algorithm of insuring test set is also presented. At last, the validity of this method is verified by an example. The method proposed in this paper effectively extends the application field of FMEA method, and has a good application value in engineering practice.