Dear Colleagues,

Fault diagnosis is extremely important for ensuring the correct behavior of any kind of system. As the complexity increases, fault identification gets more and more difficult, up to the point where the experience and ability of the designer are no longer sufficient to fulfill this task. In other words, very complex systems need automatic tools for fault localization. An approach of this kind is common in the digital microelectronics world. On the contrary, in the analog field, dominated by more complex phenomena, the same level of automation has not yet been reached and the development of tools for the automatic fault diagnosis is still an open research subject.

In electronic systems, fault diagnosis is required in the product development phase. In fact, once the design is transformed into a real product, a number of unexpected or hardly predictable faults typically affect the first prototypes. The localization of these faults and the identification of their causes are fundamental steps in design optimization. A totally different situation happens in electric power systems, whose completely different dimensions drastically change the perspective. Whereas a fault within an integrated circuit can only be fixed by replacing the device itself, a fault in an electrical line must be directly repaired. In this case, the problems are caused by a need to use non-intrusive techniques and the complexity of the modern systems, where producers and users co-habit in the prosumer concept, causing increased difficulty in fault location and its management in real-time. Not surprisingly, the answer to this need relies on preventive maintenance, to identify and localize faults before they happen, by recognizing the symptoms that precede the fault. This is the situation in smart grids, a typical example of an electric power system.

This Special Issue will promote advancement in the following topics related to the diagnosis of analog electronic circuits, electrical power systems, and smart grids:

• Parametric fault diagnosis in analog circuits;
• Catastrophic fault diagnosis in analog circuits;
• Testability, solvability, and ambiguity group determination in lumped circuits;
• Smart metering and soft computing techniques applied to the fault diagnosis;
• Diagnosis and prognosis techniques in electrical power systems;
• Smart grids: maintenance, fault prevention, fault resolution, fault-tolerant approach;
• Smart grids: non-intrusive monitoring techniques;
• CAD and simulation techniques oriented to analog circuits fault diagnosis

Prof. Dr. Maria Cristina Piccirilli
Prof. Dr. Antonio Luchetta
Guest Editors

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• Simulation after-test
• Simulation before-test
• Testability
• Fault diagnosis
• Fault prognosis
• Machine learning techniques for diagnosis
• CAD and simulation for diagnosis