Thermal Assessment and In-Situ Monitoring of Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors in Power Electronic Modules: Preprint
Insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) power modules are devices commonly used for switching of high voltages and currents. Usage and environmental conditions can cause these power modules to degrade over time, and this gradual process may eventually lead to catastrophic failure of the device. This degradation process may cause some early performance symptoms related to the state of health of the power module, making it possible to detect reliability degradation of the IGBT module. Testing can be used to accelerate this process, permitting a rapid determination of whether specific declines in device reliability can be characterized. In this study, thermal cycling was conducted on multiple power modules simultaneously in order to assess the effect of thermal cycling on the degradation of the power module. In-situ monitoring of temperature was performed from inside each power module using high temperature thermocouples. Device imaging and characterization was performed along with temperature data analysis, to assess failure modes and mechanisms within the power modules. While the experiment was aimed to assess the potential damage effects of thermal cycling on die attach, results indicated that wirebond degradation was the life limiting failure mechanism.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 1600125
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/CP-5400-73583
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Presented at ASME 2019 International Technical Conference and Exhibition on Packaging and Integration of Electronic and Photonic Microsystems (IPACK2019), 7-9 October 2019, Anaheim, California
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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