On the effect of power cycling stress on IGBT modules

IGBT reliability is becoming of great relevance, due to the range of application of these devices. Nevertheless, no standard test methods have been established, in order to evaluate their power cycling reliability. On this paper we report on the effect of Delta T and T-jmax on the power cycling capability of IGBT dice, by means of a matrix of stress cycles with different values of Delta T and T-jmax. Failure analysis has been performed, in order to understand the failure mechanisms induced by the stress. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.