Accelerated aging system for prognostics of power semiconductor devices

Abstract

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.

Review of Power Semiconductor Device Reliability for Power Converters

“…Besides, the transconductance and threshold voltage of the IGBT module also change with the aging of the module [24], [37], [38], and the transconductance-based condition monitoring method is difficult to achieve on-line application due to the limitations of its specific measurement requirement. The monitoring method based on threshold voltage is divided into two types: static threshold voltage and dynamic threshold voltage [39], [40].…”

Probabilistic Monte-Carlo Method for Modelling and Prediction of Electronics Component Life

“…The data set can be used to design and develop prognostic algorithms for semiconductor components such as IGBTs which have increasingly been used in modern multiple vehicle systems. IGBT accelerated aging experiments belong to the project in NASA to investigate the degradation characterizations of electronic components [11], as electronic components have an increasingly consumption in new generation aircrafts and vehicles, and the amount of electronic failure will also become significant. Fault diagnosis and prognostic, estimation of remaining useful life and health management have a vital role to avoid catastrophic failure, improve aircraft reliability, reduce maintenance cost and increase performance.…”

Accelerated aging with electrical overstress and prognostics for power MOSFETs

“…Hence, the block can be used as a hot or cold plate depending on the configuration. Details of the thermal block and the aging setup is shown in Figure 2 [13]. The accelerated stress test on a device was performed by periodically subjecting the device to high gate voltage using the above set up followed by electrical parameter characterization tests using a source measurement unit (SMU) from Keithley (Keithley 2410 series).…”

“…The aging circuit also does not provide any such protection, since the main aim is to stress the gate. For further details of the testbed, please refer to [13]. The accelerated aging testbed has 3 main parts:…”