Reliability Improvement of IGBT Employed in Boost Converter using Active Thermal Control

Abstract

Thermal cycles at the junction during repeating power variations are the main reason for the thermal stress of power semiconductor devices like IGBT, MOSFET etc. And this thermal stress leads to ageing and failure of power electronics. For more reliable and cost-effective energy conversion good thermal management is essential as power semiconductor components are the most vulnerable and expensive devices. This paper presents Active thermal control(ATC) methods to regulate the steady-state and transient thermal-mechanical stress in insulated gate bipolar transistor(IGBT) power module used in the Boost converter. Active thermal control has been proposed in two different ways, they are control based on an algorithm and the Proportional Integral(PI) controller. In both methods, the affected parameter is the switching frequency of the converter, while the converter’s operation remains unchanged. The proposed methods effectively maintain the junction temperature within the considerable ranges and corresponding results are validated with simulation results obtained in MATLAB-Simulink. These both control strategies improve the power module reliability and increase utilization of the silicon thermal capacity by providing sustained operation at maximum attainable performance limits.