On the notion of activation energy in reliability: Arrhenius, Eyring, and thermodynamics

The development of the temperature dependence of the reaction rate constant, as it affects reliability, is briefly reviewed. Building on this work, a form for the dependence of the rate constant on nonthermal stresses has been obtained. This form has been used to obtain a thermodynamically consistent form for an acceleration factor that explicitly includes nonthermal stresses. The simplest version of the acceleration factor model has been shown to offer the best fit to the oxide breakdown data of K.C. Boyko and D.L. Gerlach (1989). Best fit is defined as the smallest standard error, fewest adjustable parameters, and greatest degree of statistical significance of model parameters