A competing risks model with degradation phenomena and catastrophic failures

This paper proposes a competing risks model for the reliability analysis of units subject both to degradation phenomena and catastrophic failures. The paper is mainly addressed to the analysis of real data presented in Huang and Askin (2003) which refer to some electronic devices subject to two independent failure modes. The first one is the light intensity degradation, which is treated as a degradation phenomenon since the degradation level is observed and measured at prefixed times. The other one is the solder/Cu pad interface fracture, which is classified as a catastrophic failure. The main reliability characteristics of the units are estimated, such as the probability density functions and the cumulative distribution functions of each failure mode in the presence of both the modes, the hazard function, the unit reliability under the competing risks model, and the proportion of failures caused by each failure mode during the whole life of the unit.