Online junction temperature measurements for power cycling power modules with high switching frequencies

Traditionally, power cycling employs only electromechanical induced stress due to the heating caused by the conduction losses of a power device. Hence, potential failure modes caused by high dv/dt or the effects of temperature positive feedback of switching losses present under the actual application are not expressed in classical tests. In addition, traditional power cycling methods use temperature sensitive electrical parameters (TSEP), which are typically impractical to apply to pulse-width modulated power cycling tests that better represent the application conditions. Thus, this paper investigates online junction temperature measurement techniques and stress application strategies for a pulse-width modulated (PWM) based power cycling test bed used to age power module under near application conditions.