Power and Thermal Cycling Testbed for End of Life Assessment of Semiconductor Devices

The reliability of semiconductor power devices can be studied by performing a thermal and power cycling test. In order to create the desired temperature cycles, there are four free variables to select during the power cycling test, namely the heating current, heating time, cooling time, and heatsink temperature. In this paper, the relation between the selected variables and the minimum and maximum junction temperature is extensively tested for the silicon IGBT with serial number IKP06N60T. Furthermore, the thermal model is discussed and verified and a rough estimate of the electrical resistance, thermal time constant, thermal resistance, and thermal capacitance are calculated.