Identifying the failure mechanism in accelerated life tests by two-parameter lognormal distributions

Abstract

The failure mechanism stimulated by accelerated stress in the degradation may be different from that under normal conditions, which would lead to invalid accelerated life tests. To solve the problem, we study the relation between the Arrhenius equation and the lognormal distribution in the degradation process. Two relationships of the lognormal distribution parameters must be satisfied in the conclusion of the unaltered failure mechanism, the first is that the logarithmic standard deviations must be equivalent at different temperature levels, and the second is that the ratio of the differences between logarithmic means must be equal to the ratio of the differences between reciprocals of temperature. The logarithm of distribution lines must simultaneously have the same slope and regular interval lines. We studied the degradation of thick-film resistors in MCM by accelerated stress at four temperature levels (390, 400, 410 and 420 K), and the result agreed well with our method.