Advanced Replacement Lifetime Warranty

The Facts

How is it that we are able to offer such an extended warranty to our products, over and above what the OEM's offer. If we look at the facts on how solid state hardware performs over time then its easy to understand why.

The bathtub curve is a concept often used in reliability engineering to describe the failure rate of hardware components over time. It illustrates the three distinct periods of a component's life:

Early Life Failure (Infant Mortality):

This phase occurs at the beginning of a component's life cycle. Failure rates are relatively high during this period due to manufacturing defects, design flaws, or other issues. Components that fail during this phase are often referred to as experiencing "infant mortality."

Useful Life (Random Failures):

Following the early life phase, the failure rate of the component decreases and remains relatively constant over an extended period. During this phase, failures are typically due to random factors such as wear and tear, environmental stress, or other unpredictable factors. The failure rate is relatively low and constant during this phase.

Wear-Out Period:

Toward the end of the component's useful life, the failure rate begins to increase again. This increase is often attributed to aging, wear, and other degradation mechanisms. Components in this phase are more prone to failure, and the failure rate increases as they approach the end of their operational life.
Solid-state hardware, such as semiconductor devices (e.g., transistors, integrated circuits) and solid-state drives (SSDs), can exhibit different failure characteristics compared to mechanical devices like hard disk drives (HDDs). However, the general concept of the bathtub curve still applies.

For solid-state hardware:

Early Life Failure:

In solid-state devices, early life failures can occur due to manufacturing defects or issues related to the fabrication process. These defects may lead to immediate failures or premature degradation of the device.

Useful Life:

Solid-state hardware often exhibits a relatively constant failure rate during its useful life. While they are generally more robust than mechanical devices, they can still experience failures due to factors like thermal stress, voltage fluctuations, and other environmental factors.

Wear-Out Period:

Solid-state devices also have a wear-out period, although it may manifest differently compared to mechanical devices. For example, in SSDs, the wear-out period is often associated with the limited number of program/erase (P/E) cycles that NAND flash memory can endure before becoming unreliable. As the device approaches its maximum P/E cycle limit, the likelihood of failure increases, leading to a higher failure rate.
Overall, while the specific failure mechanisms may differ between solid-state and mechanical hardware, the general trend of the bathtub curve still provides valuable insights into the reliability and failure characteristics of these components over time