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The lifetime of power electronic systems is the focus of both the academic and industrial worlds. Today, compact systems present high switching frequency and power dissipation density, causing high junction temperatures and strong thermal fluctuations that affect their performance and lifetime. This paper is a review of the existing techniques for the electro-thermal modelling of Mosfet and IGBT devices regarding lifetime estimation. The advantages and disadvantages of the methodologies used to achieve lifetime prediction are discussed, and their benefits are highlighted. All the factors required to predict power electronic device lifetime, including Mosfet and IGBT electrical models, the computation of power losses, thermal models, temperature measurement and management, lifetime models, mission profiles, cycle counting, and damage accumulation, are described and compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, with the burgeoning application of high voltage in various industrial sectors, the deployment of unmanned equipment, such as industrial heavy-load Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), incorporating high-capacity Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs), has become increasingly prevalent. The demand for high-voltage IGBT modules in UAV is continuously growing; therefore, exploring methods to predict fault precursor parameters of multi-chip IGBT modules is crucial for the operational health management of unmanned equipment like UAVs. This paper analyzes the gate charge degradation in multi-chip IGBT modules after thermal cycling, which can be used to evaluate the operational state of these modules. Furthermore, to delve into the electrical response of a gate drive circuit caused by local damage within the IGBT module, an RLC model incorporating parasitic parameters of the gate drive circuit is established, and a sensitivity analysis of the peak current in the gate charge circuit is provided. Additionally, in the experimental circuit, an open sample of an IGBT module with partial bond wires lifted off is used to simulate actual faults. The analysis and experimental results indicate that the peak current of the gate charge is closely related to L and C. The significant deviation in the gate current, influenced by the partial bond wires lift-off, can provide a basis for the development of predictive methods for IGBT modules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The very low frequency (VLF) communication system is characterized by a limited transmit bandwidth. Due to the low operating frequency, the dimensions of VLF antennas are significantly smaller than the corresponding wavelength. Therefore, VLF antennas are considered electrically small antennas (ESAs) with high Q values and narrow bandwidth. To achieve broadband VLF communication, synchronous tuning technology is commonly employed. In this study, we focus on analyzing the performance of the switching device in the synchronous tuning system using coupled inductors and IGBT as core components. By considering the equivalent circuit of the controlled source associated with coupled inductors, we propose an adaptive input impedance optimization algorithm based on the variable capacitor (hereinafter referred to as VC-ADIO) to address issues arising from coupling coefficient variations and internal parameters within IGBTs that affect primary loop input impedance. The radiated power of the VLF antenna is improved effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Over high humidity in the operating environment of metro train auxiliary power supply system will lead to high leakage current of IGBT (insulated gate bipolar transistor), which may further cause the auxiliary converter failure. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the internal environment of the auxiliary converter box based on the high temperature and high humidity environment to reduce the failure rate of IGBT. Method Based on a case study of the train auxiliary converter failure on Ningbo Metro Line 4, causes of IGBT failure are investigated, and four equipment optimization schemes are proposed, including reducing the speed regulation voltage of the auxiliary converter cooling fan, adjusting the direction of internal circulation fan to reduce the humidity around IGBT, improving the sealing between cabinet and the external part, and optimizing the cooling fan control logic. Simulation and on-site tests verify that the four optimization schemes are effective and operable. Result & Conclusion IGBT failure causes are as follows: on Ningbo Metro Line 4, the low on-site operation load of the train auxiliary converter, the low operating temperature of the components, the undischarged moisture inside the IGBT, while the fast air exchange rate in the auxiliary converter box results in rapid increase of humidity in the cabinet, further leading to the over high leakage current of IGBT module. The four optimization schemes can reduce the relative humidity in the auxiliary converter cabinet and improve the reliability of the IGBT operation.

To reduce the losses caused by aging failure of insulation gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), which is the core components of nuclear power plant rod position indicating and rod control (RPC) system. It is necessary to conduct studies on its life prediction. The selection of IGBT failure characteristic parameters in existing research relies heavily on failure principles and expert experience. Moreover, the analysis and learning of time-domain degradation data have not been fully conducted, resulting in low prediction efficiency as the monotonicity, time correlation, and poor anti-interference ability of extracted degradation features. This paper utilizes the advantages of the stacked denoising autoencoder(SDAE) network in adaptive feature extraction and denoising capabilities to perform adaptive feature extraction on IGBT time-domain degradation data; establishes a long-short-term memory (LSTM) prediction model, and optimizes the learning rate, number of nodes in the hidden layer, and number of hidden layers using the Gray Wolf Optimization (GWO) algorithm; conducts verification experiments on the IGBT accelerated aging dataset provided by NASA PCoE Research Center, and selects performance evaluation indicators to compare and analyze the prediction results of the SDAE-LSTM model, PSO-LSTM model, and BP model. The results show that the SDAE-LSTM model can achieve more accurate and stable IGBT life prediction.

The multi-level inverter (MLI) plays an emergent role in high and medium-power applications. Due to the numerous advantages like lower power loss, switching loss and harmonics, the MLI is used in various applications. The major drawbacks of MLI are a higher number of switches and complex modulation strategies, thus increasing the voltage stress. Therefore, this paper proposed a novel single-phase cascaded 51-level inverter topology with fewer switches and DC sources to improve system performance. In this proposed topology, 8 IGBT switches along with 2 DC voltage sources are considered for producing 51 levels of voltage. This 51-level inverter is tuned with the help of an EPDB controller, which is a combination of Emperor Penguin Optimization (EPO) and Deep Belief Network (DBN). The EPO is used to optimize the DBN procedure to handle the MLI switches easily. Thus, it generates low harmonics voltage and error-free output voltage. The proposed inverter topology is compared with existing inverter topologies regarding the number of voltage sources, switches, and total harmonics distortion (THD). The comparative analysis demonstrates that the suggested inverter topology provides higher voltages, thereby reducing the THD of voltage to 1.17% and current to 0.10%, which are relatively lower than the existing inverter topologies; moreover, the efficiency of the proposed converter is 99.18%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A lot of previous studies have shown a great interest in connecting photovoltaic (PV) arrays to electric power grids. A Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) controlled 100 kW PV array to boost its power that feeds the grid with the help of a three-level inverter. This paper investigated the effects of open-circuit faults of three-level inverter IGBT switches on the performance of the PV array system. This paper proposes a new diagnostic method called the Double Threshold-Trigonometric Coordinates (DT-TC) that relies on the double threshold technique and the trigonometric coordinates, respectively, for early detection and the precise location of open-circuit faults. To the best knowledge of the authors, two simultaneous open-circuit faults were not considered in the previous studies. The obtained simulation results prove the great success of the proposed diagnosis method even under noticeable changes in irradiation, temperature, and the number of PV array connected in series and in parallel. In this study, the reconfigurable fault-tolerant inverter was included to ensure the perfect continuity of the PV array system and its recovery in an extremely very short time up to 7 ms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of the problem of high failure efficiency of IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) modules in inverters, which are most prone to damage and aging, and the device degradation process is difficult to predict, a neural network prediction model combining LSTM (Long Short Term Memory) and chaotic sparrow is proposed. By introducing the two dimensional Pearson correlation coefficient method to obtain the combined degradation features, the LSTM-based voltage degradation prediction model is constructed. The model is used to adaptively extract the internal correlations of degradation features to realize the screening of key information and digging deep degradation features. In the feasible domain of sparrow search algorithm, Gaussian random numbers with normal distribution and chaotic sequence corresponding to Tent mapping are introduced to improve the accuracy and stability of prediction. The learning rate, number of neurons and batch size of the model are optimized to find the optimal value to match the network topology. The LSTM with the optimal structural parameters is used to predict each original data separately and obtain the final degradation prediction value. The accelerated degradation data set of NANS experimental center is analyzed and compared with the conventional prediction algorithm to verify the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) are widely used in power electronic devices, and their health prediction problems have attracted much attention in the field of power electronic equipment health management. The performance degradation of IGBT gate oxide is one of the most important failure modes. In order to analyze this failure mechanism and the ease of implementation of a monitoring circuit, the gate leakage current of IGBTs was selected as the fault precursor parameter for the degradation of their gate oxide performance, and feature selection and fusion were carried out by using time domain characteristic analysis, grayscale correlation, Mahalanobis distance, Kalman filter, and other methods. Thus, a health indicator was obtained to characterize the degradation of IGBT performance, which was used to indicate the degree of aging of the IGBT gate oxide layer. In this paper, we propose an improved degradation prediction model called MultiScaleFormer, inspired by advanced design ideas of the iTransformer network architecture, combined with the health parameters of IGBTs to construct a degradation prediction model for the IGBT gate oxide layer. MultiScaleFormer showed the highest fitting accuracy compared with the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), Support Vector Regression (SVR), Gaussian Process Regression (GPR), CNN-LSTM, and Transformer models in our experiment. The mean absolute error (MAE) of the MultiScaleFormer prediction was as low as 0.0087. Extraction of the health indicator and the construction and verification of the degradation prediction model were carried out on the dataset released by the NASA-Ames Laboratory. These results demonstrate the feasibility of the gate leakage current as a fault precursor parameter for IGBT gate oxide failure, and the feasibility and accuracy of the MultiScaleFormer prediction model for IGBT performance degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keeping electrical systems running is critical in industries especially in those that rely on static converters, for example in the case of inverters, continuous and safe of operation must be ensured even if one of the inverter's static switch modules fails. This paper presents a method for fault detection in static converters. The study presents a 3-phase 3-level NPC (Neutral Point Clamped) inverter with IGBTs as static switches where open-circuit or closed-circuit faults are considered. In addition, leg failure and structural reconfiguration are also considered in this fault-tolerant inverter by adding a fourth 3-level leg. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Electric Drive for Locomotives is the property of Electric Drive for Locomotives Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper envisages studying the features of a conventional inductive ignition system along with its MOSFET and IGBT-based transistorized modifications. The influence of mechanical contact breaker dynamics and ignition coil characteristics on the current and voltage waveforms of the primary and secondary circuits of these studied ignition systems are mathematically and experimentally exposed. The investigation is considered necessary prior to attempting subsequent modeling and diagnostics procedures on the current-voltage performance characteristics of conventional and transistorized ignition systems. The work has demanded the development of an experimental setup based on a basic modifiable ignition system mockup and an instrumentation system to measure and analyze the voltage-current parameters of inductive ignition systems. The paper describes the design details of such instrumentation system, presents mechanical and electrical models for contact breaker and ignition circuits, then simulated to obtain base free-run response waveforms and electrical continuity behavior of the contact. A test of frequency response of the ignition coil provided additional input to the model. An experimental test of continuity of the contact, in agreement with its model, shed light on the actual excitation of the primary coil. The work comments on a sample of the registered current and voltage waveforms in primary and secondary coil windings of the ignition system at atmospheric conditions. Comparisons of waveforms and energy for mechanical contact, MOSFET and IGBT switches are made to establish them as a reference for future tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase in voltage level and current capacity of the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), the avalanche effect has become an important factor limiting the safe operating area (SOA) of the device. The hole injection into the p/n junction on the backside of the IGBT after avalanche is the main feature that distinguishes the avalanche effect from other devices. In this paper, the avalanche breakdown characteristics of IGBT and the nature of current filament are investigated using theoretical analysis and numerical simulation, and the underlying physical mechanism controlling the nature of current filaments is revealed. The results show that the hole injection on the backside of the IGBT leads to an additional negative differential resistance (NDR) branch on the avalanche breakdown curve. The device's common-base current gain, αpnp, is a crucial factor in determining the current filament. As αpnp increases, the avalanche-induced current filament becomes stronger and slower, resulting in weaker avalanche robustness of the device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keeping electrical systems running is critical in industries especially in those that rely on static converters, for example in the case of inverters, continuous and safe of operation must be ensured even if one of the inverter’s static switch modules fails. This paper presents a method for fault detection in static converters. The study presents a 3-phase 3-level NPC (Neutral Point Clamped) inverter with IGBTs as static switches where open-circuit or closed-circuit faults are considered. In addition, leg failure and structural reconfiguration are also considered in this fault-tolerant inverter by adding a fourth 3-level leg.

The use of electronic load controllers (ELCrs) is widely adopted in pico hydropower systems to maintain output power supplied to the consumer load, regardless of changes in consumer demand. This is due to the absence of moving mechanical parts, affordability, prevention of the hammer effect in pipes, and being more efficient than the governor systems. However, implementing existing ELCrs in a pico hydropower system can pose challenges related to power quality, efficiency, or costs. In this paper, a fuzzy PI-based single-switch bidirectional AC chopper electronic load controller (FP-SSBAC ELCr) is proposed. This configuration reduces the number of insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) from two, typically found in the conventional bidirectional AC choppers, to one per phase, resulting in cost reduction. A hybrid controller, comprising fuzzy and PI controllers, is designed to quickly maintain a constant output voltage and frequency when consumer load abruptly changes. The gains of the PI controller are updated by the fuzzy logic controller based on the voltage error and its derivative. The proposed model is simulated in MATLAB/Simulink and validated experimentally under sudden changes in consumer load. The results achieved with the FP-SSBAC ELCr demonstrate improved dynamic performance without overshoot compared to PI-based ELCrs. The highest recorded voltage and current total harmonic distortions (THDs) are 2.8 % and 2.1 %, respectively, meeting the IEEE 519 standard. Therefore, the proposed model has the potential to enhance performance and efficiency and can be implemented cost-effectively in pico hydropower systems.

This research article discusses the impact of climatic changes in South America, with a case study in a tropical zone, particularly the rise in temperature by 1.15 °C from 1998 to 2022, reaching a maximum of 45.85 °C in 2023. Focusing on the Electronic Conversion Unit, especially IGBT efficiency during El Niño-Southern Oscillation phenomenon in 2023. The case study employs finite element analysis using Navier Stockes-Boussinesq equations, it evaluates the heat dissipation, airflow modeling, and temperature effects, the research proposes enhancements like redesigned air flow grids, centralized air filters, and wind fans. Implementing these improvements reduces the temperature by 5.6 °C, enhances airflow speed, and mitigates the climatic impact on electronic devices over the next two decades.

Introduction. Most electromagnetic compatibility studies carried out in the context of power switch research are generally valid for low frequencies. This frequency restriction appears to be too restrictive for a complete analysis of the electromagnetic interference conducted. The novelty of this work lies in the load-dependent an optimal selection of IGBTs and MOSFETs for least-disturbance power switching in the frequency range from 150 kHz to 30 MHz, based on an optimal experimental selection procedure and show the impact of load value on switch switching and noise generation. Purpose. Analysis of the fundamental possibility of selecting a switching device with a power supply based on an experimental measurement which allows to increase the reliability of the entire mechanism operation and significantly simplify the design. Methods. In this paper, the proposed study is used and compared with experimental results at low and high frequencies. Then, a comparison is made for conducted electromagnetic interference (common-mode and differential-mode) generated by IGBT and MOSFET for different loads, and the proposed methodology is verified on an experiment suitable for predicting terminal overvoltage analysis and conducted electromagnetic interference problems. Practical value. The primary method for establishing a conducted electromagnetic interference source for switching devices is based on IGBT and a MOSFET depending on the resistive load. References 22, figures 17.

The power module of the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) is the core component of the traction transmission system of high-speed trains. The module's junction temperature is a critical factor in determining device reliability. Existing temperature monitoring methods based on the electro-thermal coupling model have limitations, such as ignoring device interactions and high computational complexity. To address these issues, an analysis of the parameters influencing IGBT failure is conducted, and a temperature monitoring method based on the Macro-Micro Attention Long Short-Term Memory (MMALSTM) recursive neural network is proposed, which takes the forward voltage drop and collector current as features. Compared with the traditional electrical-thermal coupling model method, it requires fewer monitoring parameters and eliminates the complex loss calculation and equivalent thermal resistance network establishment process. The simulation model of a high-speed train traction system has been established to explore the accuracy and efficiency of MMALSTM-based prediction methods for IGBT power module junction temperature. The simulation outcomes, which deviate only 3.2% from the theoretical calculation results of the electric-thermal coupling model, confirm the reliability of this approach for predicting the temperature of IGBT power modules.

AbstractWith the continuous advancements in new energy vehicle technology, the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) thermal properties have a direct impact on power system reliability. In this article, a minichannel heat sink with staggered V-shaped pin fins (SVPF) is investigated through both experimental and numerical approaches. Initially, the heat transfer performance of SVPF and conventional minichannel heat sink was analyzed using the CFD numerical simulation method. Subsequently, numerical and experimental validation was carried out by assessing the Nusselt number and turbulence characteristics of SVPF. Finally, an in-depth analysis was conducted to investigate the effects of SVPF geometric parameters on the turbulent characteristics and heat transfer performance of the minichannel heat sink. The results demonstrate that SVPF exhibits superior hydrothermal performance, which could maintain better heat transfer performance while simultaneously reducing the friction factor of minichannels. These findings provide valuable insights for the design of three-dimensional pin fins minichannels heat sink. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: The proposed solution for the high-power IGBT driver can be used as a reference for the design of similar intelligent gate drives, improving the reliability of power electronic converters in traction, industrial, and renewable energy applications. High-power IGBTs are used in power electronic converters in a variety of applications: traction drives, renewable power converters, mining equipment, oil and water pumping, and so on. To control a transistor, a special gate driver board is required. This board converts the logical control signal into the appropriate voltage values necessary to turn the resistor on and off. Gate drivers can perform the protection functions of IGBTs using hardware and algorithmic approaches. Application-specific integrated circuits are often used in driver solutions to implement control and protection. The development of an application-specific integrated circuit is a time-consuming and expensive procedure, which increases the cost of the driver. This paper describes the control and protection algorithms implemented in an intelligent IGBT driver based on a low-cost microcontroller. The use of the microcontroller makes the gate driver design more flexible and allows for the accurate tuning of the protection thresholds. The gate driver protects the IGBT from short-circuiting, overcurrent, and overvoltage, monitors the voltage supply, and controls the switch on and switch off processes in the transistor. The performance of the protection algorithms was tested experimentally using a specialized test bench. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Most electromagnetic compatibility studies carried out in the context of power switch research are generally valid for low frequencies. This frequency restriction appears to be too restrictive for a complete analysis of the electromagnetic interference conducted. The novelty of this work lies in the load-dependent an optimal selection of IGBTs and MOSFETs for least-disturbance power switching in the frequency range from 150 kHz to 30 MHz, based on an optimal experimental selection procedure and show the impact of load value on switch switching and noise generation. Purpose. Analysis of the fundamental possibility of selecting a switching device with a power supply based on an experimental measurement which allows to increase the reliability of the entire mechanism operation and significantly simplify the design. Methods. In this paper, the proposed study is used and compared with experimental results at low and high frequencies. Then, a comparison is made for conducted electromagnetic interference (common-mode and differential-mode) generated by IGBT and MOSFET for different loads, and the proposed methodology is verified on an experiment suitable for predicting terminal overvoltage analysis and conducted electromagnetic interference problems. Practical value. The primary method for establishing a conducted electromagnetic interference source for switching devices is based on IGBT and a MOSFET depending on the resistive load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Electronic Components & Materials is the property of Electronic Components & Materials and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Electronic Components & Materials is the property of Electronic Components & Materials and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

For insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules using wire bonding as the interconnection method, the main failure mechanism is cracking of the bonded interface. Studying the mechanical properties of the bonded interface is crucial for assessing the reliability of IGBT modules. In this paper, first, shear tests are conducted on the bonded interface to test the bonded interface's strength. Then, finite element–cohesive zone modeling (FE-CZM) is established to describe the mechanical behavior of the bonded interface. A novel machine learning (ML) architecture integrating a convolutional neural network (CNN) and a long short-term memory (LSTM) network is used to identify the shape and parameters of the traction separation law (TSL) of the FE-CZM model accurately and efficiently. The CNN-LSTM architecture not only has excellent feature extraction and sequence-data-processing abilities but can also effectively address the long-term dependency problem. A total of 1800 sets of datasets are obtained based on numerical computations, and the CNN-LSTM architecture is trained with load–displacement (F–δ) curves as input parameters and TSL shapes and parameters as output parameters. The results show that the error rate of the model for TSL shape prediction is only 0.186%. The performance metric's mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) is less than 3.5044% for all the predictions of the TSL parameters. Compared with separate CNN and LSTM architectures, the proposed CNN-LSTM-architecture approach exhibits obvious advantages in recognizing TSL shapes and parameters. A combination of the FE-CZM and ML methods in this paper provides a promising and effective solution for identifying the mechanical parameters of the bonded interfaces of IGBT modules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Electric Drive for Locomotives is the property of Electric Drive for Locomotives Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Systematic comparison of dynamic performance has been made among 3300V scaled IGBTs with scaling factor (k) from 1 to 10 by TCAD simulations. The results from a new evaluation method demonstrate superior turn-off dV/dt controllability in scaled IGBTs, regardless of stronger Injection Enhancement (IE) effect. On the basis of physical reason analysis, including the extraction of extra energy and charge quantity generated from impact ionization, it’s convinced that Dynamic Avalanche (DA) is suppressed in scaled IGBTs successfully. Thus IGBT scaling method is proven to be able to break through the trade-off relationships between lower on-state voltage drop and better switching controllability, also lower switching power loss.

This paper presents the design, simulation, and implementation of a solid state Tesla coil (SSTC) with music playback functionality through its arcs. It showcases various circuit designs that explore both feedback and non-feedback-based control mechanisms. The non-feedback based mechanism relies on an external oscillator circuit based on NE555 timer IC to drive the Tesla transformer coil at its resonance and the feedback based system relies on the selective amplification of a certain frequency at which the secondary coil is self-resonant. Additionally, to produce tones from the Tesla coil’s arcs, this paper implements a fixed gate signal interrupter circuit design that produces specific tones, as well as a music-based gate signal interrupter circuit design that produces music from the arcs. To verify the functionality of the design, the designed circuits were simulated in the LTspice SPICE simulation software and then implemented on a prototype board followed by a four-layer printed circuit board implementation. The primary coil of the Tesla transformer was controlled using an insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) based half bridge circuit.

The lifetime of power electronic systems is the focus of both the academic and industrial worlds. Today, compact systems present high switching frequency and power dissipation density, causing high junction temperatures and strong thermal fluctuations that affect their performance and lifetime. This paper is a review of the existing techniques for the electro-thermal modelling of Mosfet and IGBT devices regarding lifetime estimation. The advantages and disadvantages of the methodologies used to achieve lifetime prediction are discussed, and their benefits are highlighted. All the factors required to predict power electronic device lifetime, including Mosfet and IGBT electrical models, the computation of power losses, thermal models, temperature measurement and management, lifetime models, mission profiles, cycle counting, and damage accumulation, are described and compared.

The introduction of distributed generation (DG) into distribution systems is expanding due to carbon neutral policies. DG with intermittent output characteristics brings frequent voltage variations in distribution systems. Generally, a step voltage regulator (SVR) is installed in the long distribution line and controls its voltage, which has limits of stable voltage regulations due to the slow tap-changing rate, switching losses, and short life span. To solve those problems, this paper proposes an IGBT-based SVR using zero-voltage switching. It is verified that the stable operation can be obtained through simulation by PSCAD/EMTDC 4.6 software and empirical experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thermal reliability of two different high-power insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules was studied under both conduction and switching regimes by experimental and numerical approaches. Indeed, the reliability of semiconductor devices is tightly linked to the junction temperatures reached in the IGBT, which is a function of the diode chips present in such devices and its operating condition. However, measurements of the semiconductor temperatures are often difficult to be done, thus requiring modeling and simulation tools to accurately evaluate the instantaneous temperature under different thermal loads. For this reason, a transient 3D heat transfer numerical model of two different IGBT power devices was proposed using the Finite Element Method, assuming that heat is dissipated on the IGBT by natural convection and radiation. These simulations were validated with experimental measurements, obtained through infrared thermography, performed for the IGBT modules either opened or enclosed, varying the heat source, the module orientation and under conduction or switching regime. For the switching regime, power losses due to the gate-closing and gate-opening transitions between conducting and non-conducting states were taken into consideration. The heat losses were modeled assuming the time-dependent heat dissipation obtained by previous electrical simulations, and it was compared with time-averaged heat source solutions. Results showed that averaging the heat source can significantly reduce the computational time, allowing quick design explorations. Overall, the numerical model led to deviations of less than 16% over the transient heating and at steady-state. Finally, the impact of a heat sink attached to the IGBT was studied, demonstrating that the proposed model can be used for accurate and quick investigations of potential failures and for the development of more efficient IGBT devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary power electronics, Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) are extremely important for various reasons. IGBTs serve as vital components in microgrid inverters, providing the switching capabilities required to transform DC electricity from renewable sources into high-quality AC power for microgrid (MG) applications. A bidirectional inverter (BDI) is an essential component of a microgrid, allowing for the smooth integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) and supporting both gridconnected and islanded operations. In a bidirectional DC/AC inverter (BDAI), IGBTs play an important role in managing the flow of electricity in both directions. The consequences of bidirectional inverter’s IGBT failures on a microgrid might vary from small power quality concerns to more serious interruptions in stability and system performance. Therefore, IGBT should operate without failure. This paper illustrates a method for identifying an early IGBT switch failure (ISF) in a bidirectional microgrid inverter that is linked to a photovoltaic (PV) and battery energy storage system (BESS). An analysis of the inverter output current signal using the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) has been undertaken to discover faults. Afterwards, the impacts on the DC, fundamental current component, and harmonic distortions have been investigated for various levels of fault. A successful detection of the ISF has been attempted, based on the best-fit features. An ISF detection algorithm also has been proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) are widely used in power electronic devices, and their health prediction problems have attracted much attention in the field of power electronic equipment health management. The performance degradation of IGBT gate oxide is one of the most important failure modes. In order to analyze this failure mechanism and the ease of implementation of a monitoring circuit, the gate leakage current of IGBTs was selected as the fault precursor parameter for the degradation of their gate oxide performance, and feature selection and fusion were carried out by using time domain characteristic analysis, grayscale correlation, Mahalanobis distance, Kalman filter, and other methods. Thus, a health indicator was obtained to characterize the degradation of IGBT performance, which was used to indicate the degree of aging of the IGBT gate oxide layer. In this paper, we propose an improved degradation prediction model called MultiScaleFormer, inspired by advanced design ideas of the iTransformer network architecture, combined with the health parameters of IGBTs to construct a degradation prediction model for the IGBT gate oxide layer. MultiScaleFormer showed the highest fitting accuracy compared with the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), Support Vector Regression (SVR), Gaussian Process Regression (GPR), CNN-LSTM, and Transformer models in our experiment. The mean absolute error (MAE) of the MultiScaleFormer prediction was as low as 0.0087. Extraction of the health indicator and the construction and verification of the degradation prediction model were carried out on the dataset released by the NASA-Ames Laboratory. These results demonstrate the feasibility of the gate leakage current as a fault precursor parameter for IGBT gate oxide failure, and the feasibility and accuracy of the MultiScaleFormer prediction model for IGBT performance degradation.