DIYbanter - View Single Post - OT post- Triac's

wrote:
I know I vastly oversimplified things in my reply. If you want to
learn a lot more google on Arrhenius.

I'm aware of Arrhenius.

Dan
Jim Stewart wrote:

Jim Levie wrote:

On Wed, 09 Feb 2005 14:39:57 -0800, Jim Stewart wrote:

I think that you've oversimplifed the situation.

I went back and reread your post and I don't
disagree in principle. The failure rate may
indeed be exponential with temperature. The
*practical* issue is "where are we on the knee
of the curve"? If, at 80 deg c, we are still
way down on the flat part of the curve, the
temperature effects on reliability are very
small-to-nonexistant. I maintain that this
is the case with modern power semiconductors
in decent metal-and-glass packages, operated
within their specifications.

I would have no problem designing, selling, and
standing behind a warranty on a product whose
parts are operating within the manufacturer's
specifications, even if it meant running a power
semiconductor at 80 or 100 deg C, as long as
I knew that worst-case, the value would never
be exceeded.