Real-time life expectancy estimation in power modules
- 1 September 2008
- conference paper
- conference paper
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2008 2nd Electronics Systemintegration Technology Conference
Abstract
The environmental and operating conditions applied to power electronic modules, such as temperature changes, load cycling, vibration, etc., cause degradation and ultimately failure in particular at interfaces between dissimilar materials, such as wire bonds and in solder layers. In this paper a compact real-time thermal model is used to predict the temperatures of the active device junctions and inaccessible locations such as solder layers within the power module. The temperature estimates are combined with lifetime based reliability models to provide a tool for life consumption monitoring. A rainflow counting method is applied to the temperature vs. time data to extract the occurrence frequencies of different thermal cycling ranges. Knowledge of the life consumed for each different cycle then allows the remaining life time to be estimated under arbitrary operational conditions through application of the Palmgren-Miner accumulated damage rule. Example results for life consumption in power module substrate solder layers are presented.Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- Lifetime Prediction for Power Electronics Module Substrate Mount-down Solder InterconnectPublished by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2007
- Determination of thermal cross-coupling effects in multi-device power electronic modulesPublished by Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) ,2006