Modelling for the lifetime prediction of power semiconductor modules

Reliability engineering has emerged as a relatively new branch of power electronics (PE) supporting the fast progress towards advanced power electronic converter systems (PECS) with significantly improved reliability ratings. PECS operate under increasingly severe temperature profiles, i.e., fast temperature cycling (TC) between extreme temperature levels. Accordingly, the reliability requirements for power semiconductor modules as fundamental components of PECS are significantly increased. Power module manufacturers have been working on new power module designs and packaging technologies in order to increase endurance and prolong the lifetime of power modules in the future, and subsequently enable high performance of the PECS also concerning reliability [1]. In the future, the reliability aspects have to be included into novel multi-domain optimization tools that will further improve the design of PECS. The first step towards this goal is to allow the integration of lifetime models of the system components into the design process.