On Sunday 22 July 2007 19:40, davis wrote:
I just read an recent article in eetimes that the
target life of new
ICs is 10 years. This is due to metal migration and other (i can't
remember ) effects that sub-micron processes exhibit. I guess you
should hang on to all the old gear you can get, because everything
built today will be land-fill in 10 years. I too have that microwave,
stainless on the outside for no apparent reason and a painted
interior. The coating failed after a few years.
"Target life-time" doesn't mean that every one of the chips will be dead
in 10 years. Realistically, at worst, 1/2 will be dead in 10 years,
and more likely than not it'll be somewhere more favorable on the bell
curve than that [an insignificant amount of dead chips until 10 years
out]. There's plenty of products that were produced 20+ years ago
which had worse "target life" (though not all of it had anything to do
with design).
Of course, depending on the product, I'm sure they might have much
longer than 10 year lifetimes... especially in markets like military,
aerospace, marine, etc.
Pat
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