Life condition monitoring on smart power devices using a sequence of current and charge-based capacitance measurements

The precise life condition monitoring on smart power devices is important for smart power circuit design. To perform such a monitoring, a technique based on charge-based capacitance measurement has been developed, by which all DC, AC measurements and stress are implemented in sequence on a device. Measurement, stress and re-measurement are repeated on a logarithmic time sequence, and key parameters for the life condition monitoring are extracted from the measured curves. The degradation of the key parameters is characterized as a measure for the life condition monitoring. The technique is accurate, flexible and with lower cost.