On Mon, Aug 19, 2019 at 01:55 PM, Stephen Hanselman wrote:
still see regular failures of these [optocouplers] today.
Hi All:
I.E.E.E., NASA, and the U.S. Navy, et. al., have published papers citing the significant "failure" of these "critical" components in causing SMPSs not to operate. The authors are claiming that there are "aging" processes that take place in an optocoupler's packaging, and an optocouplers LED. As far as I can tell, the claims are mostly that the performance of some optocouplers degrades enough to prevent the optocoupler from accomplishing its intended purpose, in the design. (They don't seem to imply the aging process causes the optocoupler to fail completely; before the SMPS stops operating.)
If you are interested in going down that particular rabbit hole, and you are an I.E.E.E. member too, there are papers on Xplore.
Best regards and wishes.
Roy
