Book excerpt: Mechatronics brings together computer science, mechanics and electronics. It enables us to improve the performances of embedded electronic systems by reducing their weight, volume, energy consumption and cost. Mechatronic equipment must operate without failure throughout ever-increasing service lives.The particularly severe conditions of use of embedded mechatronics cause failure mechanisms which are the source of breakdowns. Until now, these failure phenomena have not been looked at with enough depth to be able to be controlled.