Reliability in electronics is nowadays one of the most important subjects of study, as the range of its application is very wide.

At the moment, the lifetime problems have been addressed by analysing separately the causes of failure and accelerated tests were proposed for the single components. This proposal aims at realising a test bed able to apply multiple age accelerating stresses and to realise the on-line test of the machine under different operating conditions. The test rig will embed an environmental chamber able to replicate the ambient conditions at 50,000ft, moreover, a custom converter able to vary the voltage stress at the motor’s terminal will be developed, in order to test the reliability of the motor with the converters of the future, that will employ always faster devices.

In the aerospace industry, reliability is an extremely important and researched feature for the electric drive systems. Given the life-span of an actual aircraft and the costs of unplanned maintenance, the results of this research are potentially of great impact in how designers now realise electric drives.

The procedures to realize the test bed, the data acquisition software and the post-processing software that will be developed during the project will be helpful to further push the technology limits. Moreover, the test of actual motors and the data acquired will constitute a database that will improve the existing knowledge of life time models.

The ability to modify the actual voltage waveform characteristics of the converter driving the motor under test, in conjunction with the other test facilities, constitutes a great improvement on the existing testing methodology, that usually imply off-line accelerated testing of the twisted pairs.