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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in2024 Conference on Precision Electromagnetic Measurements (CPEM) pp. 1 - 2
Main Authors Amagai, Yasutaka, Okawa, Kenjiro, Sakamoto, Norihiko, Kaneko, Nobu-Hisa
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 08.07.2024
Subjects
AC voltage
AC-DC difference
Bismuth
Heating systems
Life estimation
Life testing
Resistance
thermal converters
Thermocouples
Voltage measurement
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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