In-Situ Diagnostics and Prognostics of Solder Fatigue in IGBT Modules for Electric Vehicle Drives Bing Ji X. Song W. Cao V. Pickert Y. HU J. Mackersie G. Pierce 2381/37115 https://figshare.le.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/In-Situ_Diagnostics_and_Prognostics_of_Solder_Fatigue_in_IGBT_Modules_for_Electric_Vehicle_Drives/10149431 This paper proposes an in situ diagnostic and prognostic (D&P) technology to monitor the health condition of insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) used in EVs with a focus on the IGBTs' solder layer fatigue. IGBTs' thermal impedance and the junction temperature can be used as health indicators for through-life condition monitoring (CM) where the terminal characteristics are measured and the devices' internal temperature-sensitive parameters are employed as temperature sensors to estimate the junction temperature. An auxiliary power supply unit, which can be converted from the battery's 12-V dc supply, provides power to the in situ test circuits and CM data can be stored in the on-board data-logger for further offline analysis. The proposed method is experimentally validated on the developed test circuitry and also compared with finite-element thermoelectrical simulation. The test results from thermal cycling are also compared with acoustic microscope and thermal images. The developed circuitry is proved to be effective to detect solder fatigue while each IGBT in the converter can be examined sequentially during red-light stopping or services. The D&P circuitry can utilize existing on-board hardware and be embedded in the IGBT's gate drive unit. 2016-04-04 08:39:51 condition monitoring electric drives electric vehicles fatigue fault diagnosis insulated gate bipolar transistors modules reliability solders temperature sensors CM data D&P technology IGBT gate drive unit IGBT modules IGBT solder layer fatigue IGBT thermal impedance acoustic microscope images auxiliary power supply unit device internal temperature-sensitive parameters electric vehicle drives finite-element thermoelectrical simulation health condition monitoring in situ diagnostic and prognostic technology in situ test circuits junction temperature offline analysis on-board data-logger on-board hardware terminal characteristics test circuitry thermal cycling thermal images voltage 12 V Current measurement Fatigue Heating Impedance Insulated gate bipolar transistors Semiconductor device measurement Temperature measurement Electric vehicles (EVs) insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) prognostics and health management thermal variable measurement