Intelligent Monitoring and Maintenance Technology for Next-Generation Power Electronic Systems

Abstract

Next generation power converters are expected to be reduced in size, weight and cost while providing highly reliable operation over an extended lifetime with minimal ecological footprint. This work investigates how intelligent monitoring and maintenance technologies (IMMs) play a key role in realizing these typically conflicting objectives. It uniquely analyzes the economic and ecological potential, i.e. the increased average operational lifetime of converters, that can be realized via intelligent maintenance using extracted state-of-health data. Consequently, newest monitoring and maintenance technologies that address thermally induced stress and strain in power modules are discussed and categorized regarding their level of complexity and cost of implementation. This facilitates finding the necessary implementation effort and cost to achieve the defined reliability and lifetime requirements of specific applications. Finally, this work reviews the impact of artificial intelligence and cloud technologies on increasing the effectiveness of maintenance technology. Both technologies reveal a path to new business opportunities, such as “power-as-a-service”, and have the potential to transform the “hardware-oriented” power converter industry as we know it into a “data-driven” industry.