Limitation of Power Module Lifetime Derived from Active Power Cycling Tests

Abstract:
Lifetime models derived from active power cycling tests enable the estimation of power module lifetime under thermomechanical stress resulting from application specific loads. Since the test methodology influences the results, it must always be taken into account for evaluation and comparison of power cycling tests. Advanced, more reliable interconnection technologies exhibit failure mechanisms unknown up to now. In addition, they facilitate in adequate combination with classical technologies the isolated analysis of solder fatigue or Al wire bond degradation without interaction. The results obtained by this separation of failure modes will be presented. In the light of the great progress of empirical models for thermo-mechanical degradation, it must be kept in mind that these failure mechanisms represent only a fraction of failures observed for power electronic components in real applications.