Life time prediction and design for reliability of Smart Power devices for automotive exterior lighting

The concept of mission profile together with the principle of the linear accumulation of the damage related to the thermo mechanical fatigue is a powerful method to predict the lifetime of a Smart Power device operating in a given system. The usage of this tool requires the full comprehension and characterization of the stresses applied to the device, which in turn requires a two-sided approach. From one side an electro thermal analysis of the interaction between power device and load in order to identify the stresses applied to the physical structure and on the other side the formulation of a reliability model of the device physical structure versus the stresses. Both the system designer and the smart power device designers take benefits from this methodology: the system designer can safely choose the smart power actuator while the silicon designer can optimize the device protection architecture.