Patent ID: 8911145

Claim:
A method of estimating component lifetime including the steps of: selecting a first semiconductor; selecting a material of interest present in the first semiconductor; obtaining a laser tuned to a resonance frequency of the material of interest operable to increase Stokes and anti-Stokes scattering arising from interactions between laser light from said laser and said material of interest; irradiating the first semiconductor with the laser; detecting laser light scattering emitted by the first semiconductor; determining a temperature of a portion of the first semiconductor; and determining a lifetime for the first semiconductor, the lifetime being a function of the determined temperature of the portion of the first semiconductor; wherein said laser tuned to said resonance frequency is tuned based on a first and second property of the material of interest, wherein said first property comprises a vibrational property associated with lattice vibrations of said material of interest stimulated by said laser at said resonance frequency and said second property comprising an energy level of said material of interest associated with said scattering of said laser's output incident on said material of interest at said resonance frequency.