Mike,
I did not make my original comment clear enough because I was
afraid this was going to get so involved with the semiconductor
physics that I wanted avoid off topic.
First of all please do not mix the semiconductor products such as
for the automotive, military, space program, and consumer fields,
etc. They all have different environmental, reliability, performance,
life-time requirements and, again, I will not get into the details.
I was commenting on the life time of silicon materials for consumer type
products such as in CD players and cameras in general. Maybe I am
wrong to consider the OM slr 'consumer' products. However, I do know
that OM-4Ti/3Ti use CMOS technology CPU, although I am not sure what
kind of CMOS device used such as feature sizes used in silicon, what kind
of electrical stress requirement, and stress test performed. I only know the
system requires DC 3V battery power supply. One can calculate the
accelerated life time of aluminum wire (film) used in those ICs if the film
width and thickness, and applied stress voltage and its conditions are
known.
The comment I made about the life time of the consumer ICs being about
10~20 years is based continuous usage. If the camera is just sitting idle
without any power supply it could still function 30 years or longer. But it
all depend on the quality of the IC packages such as solder joints, sodium
contamination to the package; the IC can die within a few month/weeks.
Jim Terazawa
Motor Sport Visions Photography wrote:
> In a message dated 10/24/00 atk@xxxxxxxxxx writes:
>
> << So if I were to believe this thread (I hope it is false). All om-2sp
> will be
> dead in the next 5 years. Why, it was said expected life of their
> circuit
> (regardless of how gentle you are with the camera) is 10 to 20 years.
> Most were
> produced around 1984-1985..... >>
>
> Add to that list mid-80s cars (almost all of which had some kind of
> solid state control systems involved), mid-fi audio gear (LCD displays
> were just starting to become popular), and many other things that have
> obviously not died yet. Many can still be found...in thrift shops,
> camera bags, entertainment center shelves, and oh yeah...I drive a
> couple too.
>
> While my background is not in semi-conductor research, I do have a solid
> electronics background and to me the concept of everything electronic
> made 10-20 years ago up and dying of old age on a set time-line of 10-20
> years has to be the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.
>
> Mike Veglia
> Motor Sport Visions Photography
> http://www.motorsportvisions.com
>
>
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