Academy
IEC61508/ ISO26262: Designing Safety Critical Applications
A design toolbox for hardware, software and system Engineers.
This course is intended for design engineers. It provides the fundamental ground of knowledge needed to enable R&D to operate in a safety critical design process and to interface with the Safety Managers.
When a product is recommended to meet any Safety related norm, professionals involved in the development of electronics hardware and software parts need to understand the foundation of Functional Safety and to adopt related processes and tools.
This training is structured as a general approach, to provide an extensive practical toolbox on how to effectively implement a safety-first design process. For this reason, It is focused on the fundamental elements of the IEC 61508 norm, which is the most extensive and general. ISO 26262 is also analyzed along with other important derived norms.
Day 1: Functional Safety fundamentals
1. Introduction to Functional Safety
– Principles of Functional Safety for E/E/PE systems
– Historical context and evolution of functional safety
– Overview of random vs. systematic failures
– Proactive safety through the Functional Safety Lifecycle (IEC 61508 Part 1)
2. Risk and Hazard Management (IEC 61508 Part 3 & 4)
– Safety analysis techniques (e.g., HAZOP, FMEA, FTA)
– Hazard and risk assessment
– Allocation of safety functions to protection layers
3. Safety Integrity Levels (SIL) (IEC 61508 Part 1 & 5)
– Definition and purpose of SIL
– Methods for determining required SIL
– Overview of quantitative and qualitative SIL determination approaches
4. Introduction to IEC 61508 Standard Series
– Structure and key concepts of IEC 61508 (Parts 1–7)
– Lifecycle approach and documentation requirements
– Hardware and software integrity requirements
– Safety lifecycle phases and compliance criteria
5. Overview of Sector-Specific Derivative Standards
– Automotive: ISO 26262
– Industrial Process: IEC 61511
– Railways (RAMS): EN 50126, EN 50128, EN 50129
– Machinery: EN 62061, EN ISO 13849
6. Discussion and Retrospective
– Key takeaways from the day
– Q&A and group discussion
Day 2: Practical Implementation: Electronic Control System with Two Safety Functions
1. Concept and Planning Phase (IEC 61508 Part 1 & 2)
– Development of a Safety Plan
– Identification of system safety requirements and intended safety functions
– Hazard Analysis and Risk Assessment
– Allocation of safety functions to hardware and software components
2. Hardware Design (IEC 61508 Part 2)
– System architecture design for safety
– Fault Tolerance and Diagnostic Coverage
– Architectural metrics: Hardware Fault Tolerance (HFT) and Safe Failure Fraction (SFF)
– Failure Modes, Effects and Diagnostic Analysis (FMEDA)
– Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) for quantifying dangerous failure rates
– SIL verification based on quantitative analysis
3. Software Design and Development (IEC 61508 Part 3)
– Software safety requirements specification
– Software architectural design
– Selection and qualification of software development tools
– Planning the software lifecycle: processes, documentation, methods
– Implementation and development phases
– Verification and validation activities (unit testing, integration testing, tool qualification)
4. Final System Integration and Validation (IEC 61508 Part 4 & 7)
– Final system-level integration
– Validation against safety requirements
– Confirmation measures (independent assessment, audits, and reviews)