Cooling fan reliability: failure criteria, accelerated life testing, modeling and qualification

Based on field return and test data, the major failure mechanisms and failure modes of cooling fan system are presented in this paper. Then, the failure criteria and the reliability metrics for cooling fan systems are discussed. By critically comparing the accelerated life testing methods from various vendors, a practical accelerated life testing methodology is presented. The acceleration testing models and acceleration factor are also discussed. In the last section, a comprehensive reliability qualification procedure is proposed