Remaining Useful Lifetime Prediction of Semiconductor Lasers Using Radiation-Induced Model and Particle Filtering Method

The main factor, which leads to semiconductor lasers degradation in space mission experiments, is the introduction of lattice defects in the detector material produced by radiation. Therefore, a new remaining useful life (RUL) prediction method considering radiation effect is presented. The prediction method is based on failure mechanisms and particle filters, which realizes the combination of a physical model and data-driven method. The particle filters can abundantly employ degradation data and avoid ignoring the failure mechanism. Accelerated degradation testing (ADT) is proposed for effectively assessing the proposed prediction method, in which the proton radiation is selected as the accelerated stress. The prediction results are compared with other methods to verify the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed prediction method.

I. Introduction

Several space missions incorporate semiconductor lasers as core constituents of the payload[1]. Instruments based on the semiconductor lasers can not only offer accurate measurements of scientific and industrial interest such as material processing, gas composition or aerosol presence, but also can guide the approach and docking of spacecraft, or assist in the descent of a lander. A common failure mode in semiconductor lasers is lumen degradation, which involves degradation of the output power to about 70% of its initial value. With lifetimes varying widely from 2000 to 10,000h, the lifetime of semiconductor lasers make conventional reliability prediction through accelerated life test and failure data analysis on large sample size lots unfeasible. Therefore, establishing a novel method for the reliability prediction of semiconductor lasers is necessary and urgent in design and analysis activities.