Power Cycling Test Methods for Reliability Assessment of Power Device Modules in Respect to Temperature Stress

Power cycling test is one of the important tasks to investigate the reliability performance of power device modules in respect to temperature stress. From this, it is able to predict the lifetime of a component in power converters. In this paper, representative power cycling test circuits, measurement circuits of wear-out failure indicators as well as measurement strategies for different power cycling test circuits are discussed in order to provide the current state of knowledge of this topic by organizing and evaluating current literature. In the first section of this paper, the structure of a conventional power device module and its related wear-out failure mechanisms with degradation indicators are discussed. Then, representative power cycling test circuits are introduced. Furthermore, on-state collector-emitter voltage (V_CE-ON) and forward voltage (V_F) measurement circuits for wear-out condition monitoring of power device modules during power cycling test are presented. Finally, different junction temperature measurement strategies for monitoring of solder joint degradation are explained.