Abstract
The investigation of humidity related failure mechanism (HRFM) is of high importance for reliable operation of IGBTs. Mostly, the investigation of the HRFM is implemented under static voltage conditions. This, however, may be inapplicable because there is an obvious difference between the test condition and the practical condition. To address this, in this paper, the HRFM with the condition of dynamic avalanche is thoroughly investigated. The promoting effects of humidity on the electric field and current density during dynamic avalanche progress are qualitatively analyzed. Then, the temperature and current density distributions of the IGBT module under humidity conditions and normal conditions are compared through simulations. According to the performance comparison, it is revealed that, the humidity makes an obvious contribution to the mutual promotion effect of electric field and current density. Consequently, the operation of IGBT is susceptible to exceed the safe operating area during dynamic avalanche process. Finally, experimental tests are carried out to verify the theoretical analysis.
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