On Duty Cycle Concept in Reliability - Definitions, Pitfalls and Clarifications  
Author Feng-Bin Sun

 

Co-Author(s) Steve Lock; Wendai Wang

 

Abstract The term “Duty Cycle” has been used widely on the daily basis in many industries for various purposes in both technical and marketing/sales communities. People also use this term to design reliability testing, quantify stress acceleration factor (AF), predict product reliability, and conduct field warranty projection. However, there have been tremendous confusion and misunderstanding about the term over the years. The purpose of this paper is to provide clarification and standardize the quantified definitions for various intended product duty cycles. The impact of various duty cycle definitions on product reliability, and their correlation with reliability calculations are also investigated.

 

Keywords Duty Cycle, Usage, Workload, Time-Based, Stress-Condition-Based, Mission Profile
   
    Article #:  19135
 
Proceedings of the 19th ISSAT International Conference on Reliability and Quality in Design
August 5-7, 2013 - Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A.