Highly accelerated stress test

The highly accelerated stress test (HAST) method was first proposed by Jeffrey E. Gunn, Sushil K. Malik, and Purabi M. Mazumdar of IBM.

The acceleration factor for elevated humidity is empirically derived to be


 * $$AF_\text{H} = e^{\text{const} \cdot (RH_\text{s}^n - RH_\text{o}^n)},$$


 * $$\text{const} $$ is a value which normally goes from 0.1 to 0.15

where RHs is the stressed humidity, RHo is the operating-environment humidity, and n is an empirically derived constant (usually 1 < n < 5).

The acceleration factor for elevated temperature is derived to be


 * $$AF_T = e^{(E_\text{a}/k)(1/T_\text{o} - 1/T_\text{s})},$$

where Ea is the activation energy for the temperature-induced failure (most often 0.7 eV for electronics), k is the Boltzmann constant, To is the operating temperature in kelvins, and Ts is the stressed temperature.

Therefore the total acceleration factor for unbiased HAST testing is


 * $$AF_\text{HAST} = AF_\text{H} \cdot AF_T =

e^{\text{const} \cdot (RH_\text{s}^n - RH_\text{o}^n)} e^{(E_\text{a}/k)(1/T_\text{o} - 1/T_\text{s})}.$$