What is the lifetime expectancy of NRF52832 IC ?

[SaiTeja]

Hello , I would like to know lifetime expectancy of NRF52832 IC. By lifetime expectancy I mean the amount of duration before NRF52832 goes non-functional.
Please help me in this regard.

[Kenneth]

Failure in time (FIT, 60% CL): 36.

[SaiTeja]

Hello Kenneth, I am unable to understand your answer. Can you please elaborate

[SaiTeja]

Does this mean that NRF52832 IC will work as it is intended for 10 years? 

[Kenneth]

The short answer is Yes.

[DFreg]

Is this the lifetime of the memory hardware, or just the retention of data? If we are able to refresh the data before 10 years, will the flash memory continue to work properly?

[Kenneth]

In an ideal world I assume you could theoretically refresh the flash every 10 years, and you could do this for 20000times, and the product would last 200000years... but I don't think so, instead 10 years what you can expect for a consumer product that the chip is targetted for. 

[DFreg]

Thanks. We are designing a solar energy converter, and our target lifetime is 25 years. So are you saying the flash memory would likely not be reliable past 10 years, even if we were to refresh it periodically? Hopefully there is a workaround so that the flash isn't the limiting factor on using the NRF52832. I don't even know what a non-flash alternative would be. There must be some products that last more than 10 years that have flash memory.

[DFreg]

Anyone know the answer to this? Is the product bad after 10 years because of the flash memory? Is there no workaround  that will extend the life to 25 years (like re-flashing 3 times)?

[Kenneth]

You can find some additional information here for the flash retention in specific:
https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/32247/data-retention-time-at-higher-temperature/ 

[Daniel Wang]

"10years at 40degree Celcius,". For more typical 25 degree, it is most likely closer to 30-50 years, maybe more

[superpak]

You can always get an external Flash memory that is targeted to last longer than the on chip nRF52832 flash memory.

[DFreg]

Thanks everyone. I did look into external flash yesterday, and it seems like a viable option if I want to extend the lifetime beyond the rating of this internal flash. There are automotive grade flash chips that are rated at 20 years for 125C.

For my application, I expect the device to get up to 65C - so much worse than consumer applications. From the link provided by Kenneth, it seems that I should expect somewhere between 10 years (85C) and 48 years (40C).