Infrared thermal imaging technology has gradually spread from industrial applications such as power detection, drone payload, and security monitoring to fields closely related to our lives such as smart home and smart driving. The core of infrared thermal imaging technology is the infrared detector, so how do we evaluate the performance of an infrared detector?
一、MTTF
1.What is MTTF?
The full name is Mean Time To Failure. It represents how long the system can operate normally on average before a failure occurs. The higher the reliability of the system, the longer the mean time between failures. MTTF is usually mentioned in the product specification, and is measured in hours to express the expected life of the product.
2.What is MTTF used for?
For product manufacturers, MTTF is usually used to evaluate and verify the minimum service life of their products during the product development and design stage, so as to find the best combination of components for their products. For product users, MTTF is the main method for evaluating and verifying the minimum service life of products. Usually, based on the MTTF value, it is possible to evaluate the normal use time of the product under certain conditions in a relatively short period of time.
MTTF=(t1+t2+t3+....tm)/m, the ratio of the cumulative working time (t) of the product in the total use stage to the number of failures (m), taking the average value of the time period from the start of normal operation of the system to the occurrence of failure.
二、MTBF
1.What is MTBF?
The full name is Mean Time Between Failure. Specifically, it refers to the average working time between two adjacent failures. It is a key indicator for measuring the reliability of a product, especially electronic products, and reflects the ability of the product to maintain normal functions within a specified time. MTBF is also calculated in hours. Within a certain period of time, the fewer failures, the higher the MTBF, and the higher the product reliability, which to a certain extent reflects the quality level of the product.
2.What is MTBF 有什么用？
For product managers and product designers, MTBF is an important reference that is emphasized during the design process. MTBF is equivalent to expressing product reliability in terms of time. The purpose is to find out the weak links in product design through the time reference of the mean failure interval, and then improve and optimize them in a targeted manner.
MTBF is an important reliability test indicator for products, and is usually used as a metric to measure the reliability of hardware products. For most products, especially electronic devices, the longer the MTBF, the higher the reliability and the stronger the ability to maintain normal operation.
MTBF={t1+(t2-t1)+(t3-t2)....(tm-tm-1)}/m,MTBF is the average time between successive failures. MTBF is actually the average normal operation time between failures, because it does not include repair time.
三、Similarities and Differences between MTTF and MTBF
1.Similarities
MTTF and MTBF are both key indicators used to measure system reliability. Both represent the probability that a product will work normally under its specified application environment conditions and within a specified time. The longer the two are, the longer the overall life of the system, which means that the product is less likely to have problems.
2.Differences
MTTF is mainly for non-repairable products (electronic components, etc.). For non-repairable products, they cannot be repaired after a failure and will be scrapped once the failure occurs. That is, the system cannot be repaired after a problem occurs, or the cost of repair is too high, so MTTF can be simply understood as the life of the system.
MTBF focuses on repairable products (complete systems, etc.) because repairable products can be continuously repaired after a failure. MTBF can be simply understood as the length of time the system fails.