I am trying to develop a very high reliability product, with a MTBF exceeding 100,000 hours, hopefully in the 250,000 hours range. Yep, I know - stupidly high reliability, at least 10 years.
Most LED's I've seen have a reliability rating of only 20,000 hours. What happens after this? Do they reduce in output too much? Are they usable as power indicators past this point?
Answer
Must say I've always been highly sceptical of the meaningfulness of MTBF figures. LEDs will gradually reduce brightness over time, but it will be many times their stated life before they cease to be useable as a power indicator. Running at well below the specc'd current will increase lifetime many-fold. And would failure of a power-on LED be counted as a failure of the product?
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