Functional Safety

Robustness, reliability and safety of end-products is becoming ever more important. In some application segments these requirements are formalized and mandatory, while in others this is implemented to differentiate the product, and take the step from a good product to an excellent product.

 

The standards for functional safety depend on the market that is targeted. Many standards support multiple levels of rigorousness, which are applied depending on the likelihood and severity of the hazard. The methods of addressing hazards range from detecting single failures and putting the system into a safe state, to full redundancy where failures should not only be detected but also corrected without any interruption or degradation of service.