Ageing and failure modes of IGBT modules in high-temperature power cycling

Vanessa Smet, Francois Forest, Jean Jacques Huselstein, Frédéric Richardeau, Zoubir Khatir, Stéphane Lefebvre, Mounira Berkani

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276 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study on the ageing of insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) power modules. The aim is to identify the effects of power cycling on these devices with high baseplate temperatures (60 °C to 90 °C and wide temperature swings (60 °C to 100 °C). These values for thermal stresses have been defined according to automotive applications. The test conditions are provided by two types of test benches that will be described in this paper. The changes in electrical and thermal indicators are observed regularly by a monitoring system. At the end of the test (reaching damage criterion or failure), different analyses are performed (acoustic scanning and SEM imaging), and the damage is listed systematically. Nineteen samples of 600-V 200-A IGBT modules were thus aged using five different power-cycling protocols. The final summary of results shows that ageing mechanisms mainly concern wire bonds and emitter metallization, with gradual impact depending on protocol severity.

Original language	English
Article number	5711661
Pages (from-to)	4931-4941
Number of pages	11
Journal	IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics
Volume	58
Issue number	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/TIE.2011.2114313
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2011
Externally published	Yes

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Keywords

Power electronics
reliability testing
semiconductor devices

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Control and Systems Engineering
Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Cite this

Smet, V., Forest, F., Huselstein, J. J., Richardeau, F., Khatir, Z., Lefebvre, S., & Berkani, M. (2011). Ageing and failure modes of IGBT modules in high-temperature power cycling. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 58(10), 4931-4941. [5711661]. https://doi.org/10.1109/TIE.2011.2114313

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Access to Document

10.1109/TIE.2011.2114313