This paper examines the temperature dependence of component hazard rate for the cases of log-normal and Weibull failure-time distributions and shows that the common belief that the temperature variation of component failure rate follows the Arrhenius rule can be substantially in error. Although most failures in present-day equipment are not due to defective components, the paper also examines the temperature dependence of equipment rate of occurrence of failure having a power-law or negative exponential variation with time for the temperature range where the majority of failures are due to rate processes obeying the Arrhenius equation. The consequences of a Gaussian distribution of failure-mechanism activation energy in a device population are also considered.Although the temperature dependence of failure rate can be very high, in most situations it is much less than that of the Arrhenius acceleration factor. It is very improbable that the temperature dependence of component failure rate can be meaningfully modelled for reliability prediction purposes or for the purpose of optimizing thermal design component layout.Attention is drawn to the invalidity of determining the failure activation energy from the average failure rates in accelerated high-temperature time-terminated life tests.

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