What’s the HAST Chamber – Highly Accelerated Stress Test Chamber

● HAST Chamber, Highly Accelerated Stress Test, Extreme humidity test chamber, Accelerated testing is an approach for obtaining more information from a given test time than would normally be possible. It does this by using a test environment that is more severe than that experienced during normal equipment use. Highly Accelerated Stress Testing (HAST) is one method of accelerated testing.

● Highly Accelerated Stress Testing (HAST) was developed by Nihal Sinnadurai while working as a Research Engineer at British Telecommunications Research Laboratories in 1968 in order to perform highly accelerated reliability testing of electronics components that are likely to encounter humid environments during normal (ambient) operation. The test is sometimes referred to as the Pressure Cooker Test (PCT).

●Highly Accelerated Stress Test (HAST) was formulated to decrease the test time needed to get useful results. Due to time constraints on projects, engineers look for a faster solution to learn if their product meets the standards of their particular industry. HAST testing uses a high temperature (105°C), high relative Humidity (about 85%), and high atmospheric pressure conditions (up to 4 atm ). HAST testing loads the specimen with heat and moisture Stresses to find the concealed defects that could cause failure for the user relying on it. In testing products for reliability, defining the test conditions is the primary step. A common standard used for HAST is JEDEC JESD22-A110. Test conditions must meet application conditions in order to make testing relevant. HAST Testing has also in turn become a more cost effective alternative.