Publication Type
Journal
Journal Name
IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications
Publication Date
Page Numbers
3368 to 3375
Volume
51
Issue
4
Abstract
Rainflow algorithms are one of the popular counting methods used in fatigue and failure analysis in conjunction with semiconductor lifetime estimation models. However, the rain-flow 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 in this paper. A month-long arc furnace load profile is used as a test profile to estimate temperatures in insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) 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.