Experimental evidence that electrical fatigue failure obeys a generalized Coffin-Manson law

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that electrical fatigue failure in dielectrics follows a generalized Coffin-Manson law, suggesting a common underlying physical mechanism with mechanical fatigue related to atomic disordered structures.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence linking electrical fatigue failure to a generalized Coffin-Manson law, revealing a shared physical basis with mechanical fatigue.

Findings

Electrical fatigue failure follows a Coffin-Manson-like law

The same mathematical expression describes mechanical and electrical fatigue

Atomic disordered structures influence both types of fatigue

Abstract

The empirical Coffin-Manson law has been used to characterize the low-cycle mechanical fatigue failure of metallic materials for decades. Our experimental studies reported in this letter have shown that the electrical fatigue failure in dielectrics can be well described by a fitting function having the same mathematical expression as that of the Coffin-Manson law. This observation indicates that the physical mechanism beneath the formation and evolution of atomic disordered structures, the key factor influencing both mechanical and electrical fatigue, might be the same.