Reliability-aware Control of Power Converters in Mobility Applications

The large scale adoption of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) is still limited by cost, reliability and lifetime considerations. The power converters of a BEVs, and more specifically the semiconductor switching devices, are the second most likely component to fail due to the damage caused by the current-induced temperature cycling. In this paper we address the active mitigation of damage in e-mobility power converters, by introducing a novel frequency-domain speed controller for the power train that reduces the thermal stress on the power electronic Insulate Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs), while simultaneously ensuring effective speed tracking performance. We integrate the multi-objective problem in an
$\mathcal{H}_{\infty}$
control framework, which embeds the semiconductor reliability model in the weights functions. The method is tested using standardised driving cycles in two different scenarios: reliability-aware, and performance-oriented cases. Finally a lifetime analysis of the IGBTs, in both scenarios is performed leveraging the Rainflow algorithm and temperature data.