Thermally accelerated aging of semiconductor components

2009 IEEE Aerospace Conference

Wysocki

et al. 2009

Abstract-Electronics components have an increasingly critical role in avionics systems and in the development of future aircraft systems. Prognostics of such components is becoming a very important research field as a result of the need to provide aircraft systems with system level health management information. This paper focuses on a prognostics application for electronics components within avionics systems, and in particular its application to an Isolated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT). This application utilizes the remaining useful life prediction, accomplished by employing the particle filter framework, leveraging data from accelerated aging tests on IGBTs. These tests induced thermal-electrical overstresses by applying thermal cycling to the IGBT devices. In-situ state monitoring, including measurements of steady-state voltages and currents, electrical transients, and thermal transients are recorded and used as potential precursors of failure.

Section: Accelerated Aging Methodologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards prognostics for electronics components

Saha

2009 IEEE Aerospace Conference

Wysocki

et al. 2009

“…Thermal overstress, another prevalent method, subjects devices to high temperatures for extended periods of time. TDDB is accelerated under high temperatures [10] and transistors have exhibited temperature dependant lifetimes accelerated by this mechanism [12]. IGBTs aged with self heating have shown changes in current ringing characteristics during switching [5].…”

Section: Accelerated Aging Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An agile accelerated aging, characterization and scenario simulation system for gate controlled power transistors

Sonnenfeld

Goebel

2008

2008 Ieee Autotestcon

To advance the field of electronics prognostics, the study of transistor fault modes and their precursors is essential. This paper reports on a platform for the aging, characterization, and scenario simulation of gate controlled power transistors. The platform supports thermal cycling, dielectric over-voltage, acute/chronic thermal stress, current overstress and application specific scenario simulation. In addition, the platform supports insitu transistor state monitoring, including measurements of the steady-state voltages and currents, measurements of electrical transient response, measurement of thermal transients, and extrapolated semiconductor impedances, all conducted at varying gate and drain voltage levels. The aging and characterization platform consists of an acquisition and aging hardware system, an agile software architecture for experiment control and a collection of industry developed test equipment.

“…Another form of thermal overstress involves subjecting devices to high temperatures for extended periods of time which is essentially a reliability based method. This kind of aging accelerates Time Dependent Dielectric Breakdown (TDDB) [13] and transistors have exhibited temperature dependant lifetimes [14]. In [15] a high bias stress was applied at the gate.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accelerated aging system for prognostics of power semiconductor devices

Wysocki

Ващенко

et al. 2010

2010 Ieee Autotestcon

Abstract-Prognostics is an engineering discipline that focuses on estimation of the health state of a component and the prediction of its remaining useful life (RUL) before failure. Health state estimation is based on actual conditions and it is fundamental for the prediction of RUL under anticipated future usage. Failure of electronic devices is of great concern as future aircraft will see an increase of electronics to drive and control safety-critical equipment throughout the aircraft. Therefore, development of prognostics solutions for electronics is of key importance. This paper presents an accelerated aging system for gate-controlled power transistors. This system allows for the understanding of the effects of failure mechanisms, and the identification of leading indicators of failure which are essential in the development of physics-based degradation models and RUL prediction. In particular, this system isolates electrical overstress from thermal overstress. Also, this system allows for a precise control of internal temperatures, enabling the exploration of intrinsic failure mechanisms not related to the device packaging. By controlling the temperature within safe operation levels of the device, accelerated aging is induced by electrical overstress only, avoiding the generation of thermal cycles. The temperature is controlled by active thermal-electric units. Several electrical and thermal signals are measured in-situ and recorded for further analysis in the identification of leading indicators of failures. This system, therefore, provides a unique capability in the exploration of different failure mechanisms and the identification of precursors of failure that can be used to provide a health management solution for electronic devices.