Power Cycling Test Methods for Reliability Assessment of Power Device Modules in Respect to Temperature Stress

Choi, Ui-Min; Blaabjerg, Frede; Jørgensen, Solvejg

doi:10.1109/tpel.2017.2690500

Cited by 159 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 74 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The reconstruction of the Al surface metallization increases the resistance of the metal sheet owing to the rough metallization, non-uniform current distribution, and weakness of the connection between the metallization layer and bond wire [23]. Additionally, the temperature variation leads to solder-joint fatigue [21,23]. There are two solder joints in the standard IGBT module: between the IGBT chip and the DCB substrate and between the DCB substrate and the baseplate.…”

Section: Cause Of Failure In Standard Igbt Modulesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The current flowing to the IGBTs determines the temperature variation, and the failure of the IGBTs depends on the thermal behavior [16][17][18][19][20]. The junction-temperature swing leads to repetitive thermomechanical stress 2 of 15 in the IGBT module, which accumulates as fatigue on the device [15,[21][22][23][24]. Therefore, the analysis of the thermal behaviors via the current flowing to the IGBT module is essential for the lifetime prediction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…presents various failure mechanisms of the IGBT module. T and ∆T are the main causes of failure[15,22,23]. Failure mechanism of the IGBT module[23].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Development of a Hardware Simulator for Reliable Design of Modular Multilevel Converters Based on Junction-Temperature of IGBT Modules

Kim

Cho

et al. 2019

Electronics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper presents the development of a hardware simulator based on the junction-temperature of insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules in modular multilevel converters (MMCs). The MMC consists of various power-electronics components, and the IGBT is the main factor determining the lifetime of the MMC. The failure of IGBTs is mostly due to the junction-temperature swing; thus, the thermal profile of the IGBT should be established to predict the lifetime. The thermal behavior depends on the current flowing to the IGBT, and the load-current profile is related to the application. To establish the thermal profile of the IGBT, the proposed hardware simulator generates various shapes of output currents while the junction temperature is measured. Additionally, a controller design is presented for simulation of the arm current, which includes a direct current component as well as an alternative current component with a fundamental frequency. The validity and performance of the proposed hardware simulator and its control methods are analyzed according to various experimental results.

show abstract

Section: Cause Of Failure In Standard Igbt Modulesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Development of a Hardware Simulator for Reliable Design of Modular Multilevel Converters Based on Junction-Temperature of IGBT Modules

Kim

Cho

et al. 2019

Electronics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Based on the field experience, it has been found that the PV inverter takes a great portion of the main causes of failure events and downtime and thus one of the most fragile parts in PV systems [3,4]. Therefore, much research has been performed on the reliability of PV inverters such as reliability tests, condition monitoring, lifetime estimation, and control strategies to analyze and improve the reliability of the PV inverter [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. However, as mentioned above, even though the reliability of PV inverters plays an important role to decrease the cost of PV energy, there is still a lack of study on this when the different PV inverter topologies are compared in order to choose the proper topology for the PV system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Evaluation of Lifetime of Three-Level Inverters in Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Systems

Choi

Lee

2020

Energies

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The cost of the PV energy reduction is still required to increase the penetration level of PV systems in the energy market. The reliability of PV inverters is one of the important aspects to be enhanced in order to reduce the cost of PV energy, since it is closely related to the maintenance cost and the annual energy production. In this paper, the lifetime of NPC and T-type inverters, which are three-level inverter topologies that are widely used for PV systems, are comparatively evaluated with a 30 kW grid-connected PV system. It is performed by focusing on power devices since the power electronic components of both converters are the same except for the power devices. Therefore, this result can represent the comparison of the reliability performance of the NPC and T-type inverters. The power loss and temperature distributions of power devices are analyzed and their efficiencies are compared at different power levels with different switching frequencies. The lifetimes of the reliability-critical power devices in the NPC and T-type inverters are estimated, respectively with a one-year mission profile of the PV system, and the results are compared.Energies 2020, 13, 1227 2 of 14 and emphasized, since these aspects are closely related to the energy production as well as the volume and weight of the PV inverter [14]. In [14,15], the junction temperature profiles of the power devices in different single-phase PV inverter topologies are analyzed and compared. However, it is not enough to show the reliability of single-phase PV inverter topologies.The three-level inverters are attractive topologies for both high-power and low-power PV systems due to the outstanding efficiency and lower THD compared with the conventional two-level inverter [16,17]. The configurations of PV systems can be divided into an AC module, string, multi-string, and central configurations depending on the rated power of the PV system. Typically, neutral-point clamped (NPC) and T-type three-level inverter topologies are widely used for from a string inverter configuration of small power to a central inverter configuration of high power [18]. Previous research performed the evaluation of three-phase three-level inverter and converter topologies for a motor drive where the efficiency, semiconductor chip area, and harmonic machine losses were taken into account for the comparison factors of the three-level inverter and converter topologies, but the lifetime was not considered [17].In this paper, the comparative evaluation of the lifetime of three-phase NPC and T-type three-level inverters for the grid-connected PV systems is performed. Except for the power devices, the required power electronic components and applied stress on these components in both inverters are the same. Therefore, it can be expected that the lifetime of other components in both inverters are the same as each other. Therefore, the lifetime of the power device can represent the reliability comparison of the NPC and T-type inverter systems. A 30 kW grid-connected PV system is consi...

show abstract

“…One way to acquire information about the condition of a power device is through the well-known device-lifetime indicators, i.e., the conducting voltage, and the thermal resistance of the module [3]. Methods to measure these quantities are available in literature [4], [5], but face obstacles, especially when they are implemented online, such as lack of accuracy, or need for recalibration with device ageing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges and Strategies for a Real-Time Implementation of a Rainflow-Counting Algorithm for Fatigue Assessment of Power Modules

Antonopoulos

DrArco

Hernes

et al. 2019

2019 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC)

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The aim of this work is to obtain a reliable estimation of the remaining lifetime of power-electronic modules. Lifetime models provide information on the fatigue durability of power modules under repetitive loading circumstances. However, the thermo-mechanical stresses that a device is exposed to during operation are different than the ones evaluated to create the lifetime models. Rainflow counting provides a tool to analyze and evaluate the stress content of a randomly varying stress waveform, but counting stress cycles while the device is operating is challenging. In this paper, implementation challenges for an online rainflow-counting method are presented, and solutions to overcome them are discussed. An algorithm for online rainflow counting is implemented, and numerical results from tests on experimental device-temperature data are presented.

show abstract

Power Cycling Test Methods for Reliability Assessment of Power Device Modules in Respect to Temperature Stress

Cited by 159 publications

References 74 publications

Development of a Hardware Simulator for Reliable Design of Modular Multilevel Converters Based on Junction-Temperature of IGBT Modules

Development of a Hardware Simulator for Reliable Design of Modular Multilevel Converters Based on Junction-Temperature of IGBT Modules

Comparative Evaluation of Lifetime of Three-Level Inverters in Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Systems

Challenges and Strategies for a Real-Time Implementation of a Rainflow-Counting Algorithm for Fatigue Assessment of Power Modules

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About