Hi there,
Recently i ran into a paper stating this it is possible to build a 100-year lifetime grid tied inverter. In power supplies it is common use to estimate the lifetime of a product by the use of electrolytic capacitors. The vendors even give formulas to calculate dry-up'' rate of the electrolyte, caused by elevated temperatures. As more and more applications scream for high lifetime drivers and converters, the focus is the eliminate the capacitors from the design. If the designer is successful the question can be asked: is it likely that applications like solar converters and LED-drivers will survive the lifetime of the PV cells and LED's? I think to focus should be on several other aspects like temperature cycles from off to on, which will cause broken solderjoints. What do you think other limiting factors will be?
Best regards, Enrico Migchels