Effects of power cycling test condition and test strategy on lifetime estimation of power modules in power electronic systems

Abstract

One of the main purposes of an accelerated power cycling test is to develop a lifetime model for the lifetime prediction of power modules. It is important to select proper test conditions when the power cycling test is performed since it is closely related to the lifetime model parameters and also to the testing time. In this paper, the effects of power cycling test condition and test strategy on the lifetime estimation of power modules are studied. The lifetime models of the IGBT module are developed by the accelerated power cycling tests with different test conditions and also by calibrated accelerated power cycling test. As a case study, the lifetime of IGBT module in motor drive system is estimated with different lifetime models and the results are compared.