Unipolar and Bipolar Test Voltage in Conventional Partial Discharge Measurement Setups

Abstract:
The trend of higher voltages and reduced package size increases the demand for consideration of partial discharge (PD) in high voltage power modules. At least by the introduction of vehicles with 800V electrified powertrain, the evaluation of PD is necessary to ensure insulation robustness and quality. Due to the lack of power module specific insulation coordination standards for automotive applications, a gap between the conventional standards and the needs from real applications are obvious. In this paper, a standard approach is shown to adapt conventional PD measurements to ensure best quality of insulation.