Highly Accelerated Life Testing of Bi-Sb Thermocouples in Planar Multijunction Thermal Converters

This paper presents the lifetime evaluation of the bismuth (Bi) and antimony (Sb) thermocouples assisted by the copper heat shunt in a planar multijunction thermal converter (MJTC) via highly accelerated life testing (HALT). The temperature is selected as the accelerated stress variable. The electri...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Amagai, Yasutaka, Okawa, Kenjiro, Sakamoto, Norihiko, Kaneko, Nobu-Hisa
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
AC voltage
AC-DC difference
Bismuth
Heating systems
Life estimation
Life testing
Resistance
thermal converters
Thermocouples
Voltage measurement
Online Access:Request full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper presents the lifetime evaluation of the bismuth (Bi) and antimony (Sb) thermocouples assisted by the copper heat shunt in a planar multijunction thermal converter (MJTC) via highly accelerated life testing (HALT). The temperature is selected as the accelerated stress variable. The electrical resistance increment of the thermopile is chosen as the primary signal of failure during HALT. The mean time to failure (MTTF) of the MJTC is calculated at several elevated temperatures using a two-parameter Weibull model. The accumulative failure rate fits well with the Weibull model. The MTTF at rated condition was predicted using the Arrhenius equation. The analysis shows that the MTTF of the modified thermocouple design has a considerably longer lifetime than that of the original one.
ISSN:2160-0171
DOI:10.1109/CPEM61406.2024.10646068