Abstract

Standard highly accelerated life testing (HALT) frameworks for electronic assemblies rely on static or sustained stepped resistive output loads. However, resistive load profiles fail to model the instantaneous electrical stress on power delivery networks when driving non-linear capacitive microelectromechanical system (MEMS) devices. This publication describes an accelerated reliability testing methodology that subjects high-voltage digital-to-analog converter (HVDAC) drive modules to fast-edge trapezoidal voltage waveforms into physical capacitive load equivalents.

The trapezoidal drive forces high instantaneous current surges by compressing charging and discharging times into microseconds. These surges stress upstream direct current (DC)-DC power supply control loops, exposing transient voltage sag, overshoot, and system-level power starvation prior to deployment. The methodology incorporates expanded failure criteria beyond primary power supply regulation dropouts, including catastrophic hardware damage (e.g., MEMS electrostatic snap-down), digital serial communication errors (e.g., serial peripheral interface errors), voltage reference instability (e.g., 4.096V), and signal distortion. Combined with rapid thermal cycling, this accelerated dynamic loading approach provides an effective framework for validating high-voltage capacitive drive assemblies across optical switching, sensing (e.g., laser imaging, detection, and ranging (LIDAR)), and actuation infrastructure (e.g., radio frequency (RF) MEMS).

Keywords: Highly accelerated life testing (HALT), capacitive loads, trapezoidal waveforms, transient power instability, high-voltage digital-to-analog converters, microelectromechanical systems, power delivery network stress, dynamic stress testing, electrostatic snap-down.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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