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54 I-CONNECT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2026 I N T E RV I E W BY M A R CY L A R O N T, I - C O N N ECT0 07 Designing for Reliability Why Understanding Materials, Cleanliness, and Lifecycle Matters More Than Ever Before a product enters manufacturing— long before the first panel hits the assembly line— its reliability is determined by a series of funda- mental design decisions. Designing a PCB is not simply a matter of placing components on a board and sending the files to manufacturing. Designing for reliability requires a holistic approach. Every material, from solder mask and laminate to flux and solder alloy, interacts with processing chemistry, environmental contaminants, and ther- mal cycling throughout the product's lifetime. The environment in which the product is expected to work, and its intended lifecycle demands, must be understood at the outset. Failing to consider the design from every aspect can turn a promising design into a very expensive cautionary case study. Flex Ltd. (formerly Solectron/Flextron- ics International) is one of the largest EMS providers in electronics manufac- turing today. At productronica, Flex's Tiberiu (Tibi) Baranyi gave a compre- hensive presentation on design for reliabil- ity, providing real-world case examples that illus- trated the unfortunate outcomes of decisions that caused failures, and which should have been made differently. I spoke with him about why this topic is so important for designers to understand from the outset. Marcy LaRont: Tibi, if there is one word on every- one's lips, other than AI, it's reliability. With today's technology demands, the challenges around guaranteeing reliability are significant. Tiberiu Baranyi: Yes, this is a key point. Before a design rolls into manufacturing, before it even pro- gresses from concept to the initial phases of the design process, there are questions that must be answered. Product application, operat- ing environment, and its expected life- cycle are three primary pieces of infor- mation you must have to create a successful design. Many factors need to come together in the design. It's not just throwing components on a printed writing board. Understanding your prod-