  Prognostics is a process of assessing the extent of deviation or degradation
of a product from its expected normal operating condition, and then, based on
continuous monitoring, predicting the future reliability of the product. By
being able to determine when a product will fail, procedures can be developed
to provide advanced warning of failures, optimize maintenance, reduce life
cycle costs, and improve the design, qualification and logistical support of
fielded and future systems. In the case of electronics, the reliability is
often influenced by thermal loads, in the form of steady-state temperatures,
power cycles, temperature gradients, ramp rates, and dwell times. If one can
continuously monitor the thermal loads, in-situ, this data can be used in
conjunction with precursor reasoning algorithms and stress-and-damage models to
enable prognostics. This paper discusses approaches to enable electronic
prognostics and provides a case study of prognostics using thermal data.
