What is Diagnostic coverage?

The fraction of faults that a safety mechanism can detect or control, abbreviated DC. Adding a safety mechanism with 99% diagnostic coverage to a 200 FIT circuit leaves 2 FIT of undetected faults.

Japanese name: 診断カバレッジ

Diagnostic coverage appears in 4 practice questions across 1 topic, including Automotive Semiconductors and Functional Safety.

Field: Automotive Semiconductors and Functional Safety

Try it: questions about Diagnostic coverage

A safety mechanism with 99% diagnostic coverage is added to a circuit with a failure rate of 200 FIT. What is the failure rate of the faults that remain undetected by the safety mechanism?

  1. A198 FIT
  2. B0.02 FIT
  3. C2 FIT
Show answer and explanation

Answer: C. 2 FIT

Diagnostic coverage (DC) is the proportion of faults that a safety mechanism can detect or control. The remaining failure rate is 200 × (1 − 0.99) = 200 × 0.01 = 2 FIT. 198 FIT is the failure rate of the faults the safety mechanism can detect, and 0.02 FIT is the result of misplacing the decimal point in the multiplication. Fault coverage in manufacturing test represents the proportion of defective parts found before shipment, whereas diagnostic coverage represents the proportion of faults occurring in use that are detected on the spot.

Diagnostic coverage in the explanations

Questions that mention Diagnostic coverage (4)

  1. A safety mechanism with 99% diagnostic coverage is added to a circuit with a failure rate of 200 FIT. What is the failure rate of the faults that remain undetected by the safety mechanism?
  2. In ISO 26262, which correctly lists the three factors evaluated when determining the ASIL through hazard analysis and risk assessment (HARA)?
  3. The total failure rate of safety-related hardware is 1000 FIT, of which single-point faults and residual faults (faults that remain undetected by safety mechanisms) total 5 FIT. What is the single-point fault metric (SPFM)?
  4. Which correctly describes how a lockstep CPU, used as a safety mechanism in automotive microcontrollers, works?

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Related terms

Safety mechanism ASIL (Automotive Safety Integrity Level) Fault coverage ISO 26262 HARA (hazard analysis and risk assessment) FTTI (fault tolerant time interval) SPFM (single-point fault metric) Lockstep CPU Comparator AEC-Q100

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