Transitioning to Physics-of-Failure as a Reliability Driver in Power Electronics

• Published in: IEEE journal of emerging and selected topics in power electronics Vol. 2; no. 1; pp. 97 - 114
• Main Authors: Huai Wang, Liserre, Marco, Blaabjerg, Frede, de Place Rimmen, Peter, Jacobsen, John B., Kvisgaard, Thorkild, Landkildehus, Jorn
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.03.2014
• Subjects: Capacitors; design for reliability (DFR); Failure analysis; Insulated gate bipolar transistors; insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules; physics-of-failure (PoF); power electronics; Reliability engineering; Robustness; robustness validation; Stress
• ISSN: 2168-6777; 2168-6785
• DOI: 10.1109/JESTPE.2013.2290282

Power electronics has progressively gained an important status in power generation, distribution, and consumption. With more than 70% of electricity processed through power electronics, recent research endeavors to improve the reliability of power electronic systems to comply with more stringent constraints on cost, safety, and availability in various applications. This paper serves to give an overview of the major aspects of reliability in power electronics and to address the future trends in this multidisciplinary research direction. The ongoing paradigm shift in reliability research is presented first. Then, the three major aspects of power electronics reliability are discussed, respectively, which cover physics-of-failure analysis of critical power electronic components, state-of-the-art design for reliability process and robustness validation, and intelligent control and condition monitoring to achieve improved reliability under operation. Finally, the challenges and opportunities for achieving more reliable power electronic systems in the future are discussed.