Loss and Thermal Characterization Methods for Power Semiconductor Devices Based on H-bridge Circuit

The accurate loss and thermal characteristics of power semiconductor devices are crucial not only for efficiency evaluation, but also for the temperature estimation and lifetime prediction of power electronics systems. In traditional way, the loss and thermal characteristics are evaluated by testing schemes/setups that are quite different from practical converters. In order to improve the testing accuracy, this paper presents testing schemes based on an H-bridge circuit, which can realize loss and thermal impedance measurements. In the proposed methods, parasitic effect and thermal coupling are considered, so that devices under test (DUTs) are evaluated in more realistic working conditions. In addition, the proposed testing methods enable tests of multiple DUTs and repeated measurements, in order to extract parameters distribution of a specific device model. The testing principles and some electrothermal behaviors are verified through experimental results.