Reliability assessment for particle-induced failures in multi-generation hard disk drives

Abstract

A study was conducted to assess the reliability particle-induced failures of multi-generation hard disk drives (HDDs). An experimental setup and a statistical modeling framework were used to quantify the reliability of HDDs. The experiments consists of testing a collection of development drives at different rates of particles injection on a specially constructed tester. The tester was located inside a down-flowing clean-air hood. The cumulative number of particles was also recorded at regular interval throughout the duration of the experiment. A statistical modeling framework utilizing the cumulative particle count (CPC) as a surrogate response for estimating the reliability of prime HDD is also used in the experiments. CPC growth curves of HDDs are used to determine the baseline particle count. Results show that the use of model for CPC in prime HDD can help to obtain the lifetime distribution of particle-in-induced failure for the respective vintage of the HDD.