EVALUATION OF SILICON METALLIC RECTIFIERS
Abstract
Life tests were conducted on 100 1N538 mediumpower silicon rectifiers, or equivalent. Groups of 10 diodes, from each of five manufacturers, and for each of two experimental conditions 85 C ambient temperature, 650 milliamperes dc forward current, and 134.5 volts rms inverse voltage; and 100 C ambient temperature, 500 milliamperes dc forward current, and 134.5 volts rms inverse voltage were tested for 17,264 hours. The diode characteristics were measured at time intervals dictated by the anticipated failure frequency. The ambient temperature conditions of the two stress levels were raised to 150 and 170 C, respectively, at 17,264 hours of test, to accelerate failures. Totals of 36 diodes and 25 diodes respectively failed catastrophically in the two stress groups during the total accumulation of over 26,000 hours. At 150 and 170 C, totals of 28 and 15 catastrophic failures respectively occurred during an elapsed time of 9000 hours. It was found that catastrophic failure of a diode was not always preceded by a substantial increase of forward-voltage drop, and consequently, was not an adequate criterion of impending failure. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 31, 1961
- Accession Number
- AD0276989
Entities
People
- B.f. Lathan
Organizations
- IIT Research Institute