Prediction of reliability on thermoelectric module through accelerated life test and Physics-of-failure

Abstract

Thermoelectric cooling module (TEM) which is electric device has a mechanical stress because of temperature gradient in itself. It means that structure of TEM is vulnerable in an aspect of reliability but research on reliability of TEM was not performed a lot. Recently, the more the utilization of thermoelectric cooling devices grows, the more the needs for life prediction and improvement are increasing. In this paper, we investigated life distribution, shape parameter of the TEM through accelerated life test (ALT). And we discussed about how to enhance life of TEM through the Physics-of-failure. Experimental results of ALT showed that the thermoelectric cooling module follows the Weibull distribution, shape parameter of which is 3.6. The acceleration model is coffin Coffin-Manson and material constant is 1.8.