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AN56 Zuverlässigkeit en Online
AN56 Zuverlässigkeit en Online
AN56.01.en
Reliability:
Specification of MTBF and service lifetime
for PULS power supplies
Author: Bernhard Erdl, founder, president and chief developer of PULS GmbH
MTBF
The MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) value (as is the „failure in time“ specifica-
specifies how often a unit fails as a statisti- tion; 1 fit = 10-9 failures per hour), whereas
cal average. Even if all parties strive to keep the MTBF uses the unit of hours.
the number of failures as low as possible, The failure rate expresses how many fai-
it is unavoidable that a technical product lures are to be expected when a certain
fails with a certain level of probability. The number of units are operated for a specific
frequency of the failures is represented by period. This is the specification of interest
the symbol for failure rate (Lambda). The in practice. An example: We take 1,000
MTBF is the reciprocal value of . speci- units and operate them for 2,000 hours.
fies the number of failures per unit hour. In
practice, specifications in MTBF are more
common, presumably because the failure
rate is given in 1/hour, and is a smaller
A: Early Defects
You can look at it like this: If you operate
B: Random Defects
1,000 units for 2,000 hours, correspon- C: Wear Out
ding to 2 million unit hours, and the MTBF
is 500,000h, we can expect four failures (2
million / 500k = 4). MTBF
A simple working hypothesis could also Service Life Time
be that 500,000 units are operated simul- (log)
taneously, of which each has an MTBF of
500,000h: one unit would then fail every Figure 1: Bath graph
Error frequency across the service life of a unit
hour.
Comparison of the reliability values for the CPS20 with 24V/20A under various conditions
Service life:
MTBF:
1,000
Human
100
50,000h PULS
Power Supplies
PC
10
Car
1 Coffee machine
0.1 Toy
Missile
A clear comparison of the statistical failu- Since the introduction of the DIMENSION via calculation and the thermal stress via
re rate MTBF and the expiry of the service product range, PULS has been a pioneer in measurement. These values then produce
life in a range of applications is given in specifying the values for MTBF and service a program on the failure rate for the com-
figure 3. For example, in a rocket applica- life in its data sheets. Considerable value ponent under this stress condition and the
tion, a short service life of 5 to 10 minu- is set on ensuring that the definitions are total of the individual failure rates of the
tes is sufficient as in that time it has done clearly specified. components gives the total failure rate/
its job and then crashes. With the variety With the MTBF in particular, there are MTBF of the device.
of components it comprises, and in the many ways to calculate the figure and de-
light of the damage arising due to non- pending on the calculation method and
Life Multiplier
functionality, the failure time during these the definition of the operating conditions,
10 minutes should be very low, however, the results are very different. The simplest
meaning the MTBF is very high. A contras- method is the „parts count“. Here only
ting example is an amplifier in a submarine the number of components is counted
cable. It must last for 40 years as it cannot and multiplied by a mean failure rate to
be easily replaced; on the other hand it is calculate to the failure rate of the overall
not so complex and a poorer MTBF is ac- equipment. This is an over-simplification.
ceptable to compensate for the long ser- It is more precise, more complicated and Temperature Rise
vice lifetime. therefore unpopular with developers to
Figure 4:
consider each individual component in For every 10°C temperature rise, service life is halved
For high quality industrial power supplies, the power supply (which can be hund-
both the MTBF and the service lifetime are reds) to determine the electrical stress
important. During the normal duration of
use, as few failures as possible should in-
terrupt operation and the usability of the
machine should be achieved over many
years without changing components.