Reliability estimation of Inertial Measurement units using Accelerated Life Test

Abstract

In many different technological and industrial fields microelectronic device reliability is rising up as a fundamental aspect to consider during the design of diagnostic, optimization and control systems. Unexpected failures in diagnostic and control units could lead to a severe impact on the entire system/plant availability. Thus, reliability analysis must be carried out during the early phase of the design. MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) based Inertial Measurement Units are widespread in diagnostic units to monitor acceleration, position and angular velocity of machinery. However, recent literature lack of a reliability estimation for this kind of devices. Thus, this paper proposes a measurement setup and a customized Accelerated Life Test plan for reliability estimation of a set of Inertial Measurement Units. A temperature-based stress test based on the HTOL (High Temperature Operating Life) protocol have been carried out to age the devices with the aim of obtaining a failure dataset. Results of the test have been used to predict device's reliability.