Abstract
In this paper, a non-contact degradation evaluation method for insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules is proposed based on eddy current pulsed thermography approach. In non-contact heat excitation procedures, a high-power induction heater is introduced to generate heat excitation in IGBT modules. The thermographs of the whole temperature mapping are recorded non-invasively by an IR camera. As a result, the joint degradation of IGBT modules can be evaluated by the transient thermal response curves derived from the recorded thermographs. Firstly, the non-destructive evaluation principle of the eddy current pulsed thermography (ECPT) system for an IGBT module with a heat sink is introduced. A 3D simulation module is built with physical parameters in ANSYS simulations, and then thermal propagation behavior considering the degradation impact is investigated. An experimental ECPT system is set up to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The experimental results show that the delay time to peak temperature can be extracted and treated as an effective indicative feature of joint degradation.
Highlights
With continuous innovation and development of power semiconductor techniques, the insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) are representative of a fully controlled electronic device, which is widely used in motor drives, renewable energy generation systems, etc. [1,2]
This paper proposes a non-contact test method for joint degradation detection, based on an eddy current pulsed thermography (ECPT) technique
The thermography analysis methods have been applied to the failure detection in electronics packaging like the printed circuit boards (PCBs), cracks in the coppers and random voids in soldered metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) [29,30,31]
Summary
With continuous innovation and development of power semiconductor techniques, the insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) are representative of a fully controlled electronic device, which is widely used in motor drives, renewable energy generation systems, etc. [1,2]. The main trends of modern IGBT modules are higher switching frequency, smaller chip footprint, and higher operating temperature [3]. In terms of power conversion systems, typical joint degradation failures include delamination and random voids, in the solder and thermal grease layer [6,7]. Traditional detection methods for joint degradation are mainly based on monitoring the degradation of sensitive electrical parameters (DSEPs) and junction temperature (Tj ). In order to get more accurate results, the silica gel within the inspected IGBT module should be removed, and thermal black paint needs to be deposited on the chip surface [19]. This paper proposes a non-contact test method for joint degradation detection, based on an eddy current pulsed thermography (ECPT) technique.
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