Rainflow algorithm based lifetime estimation of power semiconductors in utility applications

Author

GopiReddy, Lakshmi ; Tolbert, Leon M. ; Ozpineci, Burak ; Pinto, Joao O. P.

Author_Institution

EECS Dept., Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

fYear

2014

fDate

16-20 March 2014

Firstpage

2293

Lastpage

2299

Abstract

Rainflow algorithms are one of the best counting methods used in fatigue and failure analysis popularly used in semiconductor lifetime estimation models. However, the rainflow algorithm used in power semiconductor reliability does not consider the time dependent mean temperature calculation. The equivalent temperature calculation proposed by Nagode et al is applied to semiconductor lifetime estimation for the first time in this paper. A month long arc furnace load profile is used as a test profile to estimate temperatures in IGBT in a STATCOM for reactive compensation of load. The degradation in the life of the IGBT power device is predicted based on time dependent temperature calculation.

Keywords

insulated gate bipolar transistors; power semiconductor devices; static VAr compensators; IGBT power device; STATCOM; arc furnace load profile; failure analysis; load reactive compensation; power semiconductors; rainflow algorithm; semiconductor lifetime estimation models; time dependent temperature calculation; Estimation; Insulated gate bipolar transistors; Power system reliability; Reactive power; Reliability; Temperature; Temperature dependence; Cycle counting; STATCOM; lifetime estimation; power semiconductor reliability; rainflow algorithms;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), 2014 Twenty-Ninth Annual IEEE

Conference_Location

Fort Worth, TX

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/APEC.2014.6803623

Filename

6803623