In Situ Power Loss Estimation of IGBT Power Modules

Abstract

A fault detection and prediction method of insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) has been improved over the past decades to reduce system down time. In situ lifetime estimation of IGBT modules has been challenging due to a number of requirements: necessity to operate at high-voltage in the switching environment, measurement precision of the gate-threshold voltage or collector-to-emitter voltage. This paper presents a wear-fatigue estimation framework that consists of collector-to-emitter measurement, power loss calculation and thermal lifetime prediction model. The measurement circuit enables the estimation of power loss across a variety of IGBT modules with minimum impact on system reliability.