Overview of Accelerated Life Testing

Use Accelerated Life Testing to model product performance (usually failure times) at extreme stress levels and to extrapolate the results back to normal-use conditions.

The goal of an accelerated life test is to speed up the failure process to obtain timely information on products with a long life. Methods of acceleration include testing under extreme temperature, voltage, pressure, and so on.

For example, under normal conditions a microchip may not fail for many years. However, the same microchip will fail within hours when subjected to high temperatures. With an accelerated life test, you can use the information about when microchips fail under high temperatures to predict when failures are likely to occur under normal operating conditions.

An accelerated life test evaluates the relationship between failure time and at least one accelerating variable. Use this test to answer questions such as the following:

When are highly reliable components expected to fail?
What is the effect of a factor on the lifetime of a product?
What factor settings will maximize the lifetime of the product?

Where to find this analysis

To perform an accelerated life test, choose Stat > Reliability/Survival > Accelerated Life Testing.

When to use an alternate analysis

If your response data are binary (only two possible outcomes), instead of continuous measurements of failure time (or other units), use Probit Analysis.