Condition monitoring of press-pack IGBT devices using Deformation Detection Approach

Abstract

Press pack Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (PP IGBT) are gaining more attention in HVDC power transmission systems due to their high-power density and high reliability compared with conventional power modules. Condition monitoring of PP IGBTs is normally conducted by estimating the chip temperature which is challenging to implement in practice. This paper presents a new parameter, deformation of the upper lid groove, to indicate the health condition of the PP IGBT based on its unique packaging technique. The thermal-mechanical coupled model is built by FE software in order to investigate the relationship between the deformation and junction temperature of the chips. In addition, the several feasible detection methods of deformation have been discussed and utilization of the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor shows the advantages as the most appropriate approach, which can be further developed for condition monitoring using deformation measurements.

Deformation Analysis of Press-Pack IGBT Using Thermal Mechanical Coupling Method

“…Another research work proposed the influence of the pressure between the molybdenum plate and silicon chip stating that low and high pressure can cause severe damage [13] concluding that the clamping force is an important parameter which affects the PP IGBT reliability. In [14] a comparison of different sensors have been investigated to measure defomation of the PP IGBT . The plasma-extraction transit-time (PETT) method has been proposed in [15] to detect the temperature of the chip inside the PP IGBT.…”