Evaluation of Power Semiconductors Power Cycling Capabilities for Adjustable Speed Drive

Author

Wei, Lixiang ; Kerkman, Russ J. ; Lukaszewski, Richard A.

Author_Institution

Rockwell Autom. - Allen Bradley, Mequon, WI

fYear

2008

fDate

5-9 Oct. 2008

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

10

Abstract

This paper analyzes the power cycling capability of semiconductor under various conditions for adjustable speed drive (ASD). An analysis is made that calculates the mean time to failure (MTTF) of the semiconductor under various conditions, including low speed operation capability, high speed thermal capability and overload capability. After that, the MTTF estimations of the IGBT under different heatsink design and different drive ratings are studied. This paper will show that the MTTF of the inverter may be very short under some very common operating conditions. Thus, it is prudent to size the drive properly in order to avoid earlier failure.

Keywords

insulated gate bipolar transistors; power semiconductor devices; IGBT; adjustable speed drive; high speed thermal capability; low speed operation; mean time to failure; overload capability; power cycling capabilities; power semiconductors; Costs; Failure analysis; Insulated gate bipolar transistors; Inverters; Multichip modules; Semiconductor diodes; Switching frequency; Temperature; Variable speed drives; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting, 2008. IAS '08. IEEE

Conference_Location

Edmonton, Alta.

ISSN

0197-2618

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2278-4

Electronic_ISBN

0197-2618

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/08IAS.2008.362

Filename

4659150