Schlüsselwörter
(Englisch)
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Reliability; power electronic devices; traction; railway; locomotive
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Alternative Projektnummern
(Englisch)
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EU project number: BRPR-CT95-0074
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Forschungsprogramme
(Englisch)
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EU-programme: 4. Frame Research Programme - 2.1 Industrial and materials technologies
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Kurzbeschreibung
(Englisch)
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See abstract
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Partner und Internationale Organisationen
(Englisch)
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Eupec (D), ABB Semiconductors AG (CH), GEC Plessey (GB), Ansaldo Transporti (I), INRETS (F), Siemens R&D (D), ABB Corporate Research Ltd. (CH), Ansaldo Research (I), SNCF (F), DB (DE), FS (I), ETH Zürich (CH), Uni Bordeaux (F), UCAM-DEN (GB), Uni Dortmund (D), Uni Parma (I)
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Abstract
(Englisch)
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The project RAPSDRA was operated by a team of major European power semiconductor manufacturers. It had the goal to enable the manufacturers of traction equipment to use IGBT power modules for their next generation traction converters. Since the reliability of these components is one of the critical issues, a research effort was taken to gain knowledge on reliability related to traction application and provide data and information to the traction manufacturers and end users. Today, it can be said that RAPSDRA has brought IGBT technology a large step forward by improving the reliability tests and achieving agreement on standardised accelerated tests.
The project was structured into 10 tasks, which had to merge into a joint proposal for IEC reliability test standards. Accelerated reliability tests were developed on the basis of an understanding of the physics of failures and were performed by several project partners. The planned agreement was reached towards the end of the project, leaving only one test open -that of the solder layer between the ceramic substrate and the base-plate. In view of the speed at which new technologies were and continue to be introduced, the reliability testing group decided to continue its activities in a working group at CENELEC TC9X WG B9 founded specifically for this purpose.
Among the RAPSDRA tasks are the following related to ABB Corporate Research Ltd.:
1. Information from the field: Measurements of semiconductor stress parameters on major european railway lines were collected and analysed by the partners. On all major intercity lines of Switzerland, data were taken on Lok2000 and BLS locomotives. These profiles were converted to virtual IGBT driven vehicles and folded with environmental temperature profiles obtained from SMA. The collected stress profiles were used in turn as input for the accelerated reliability tests.
2. Failure mechanisms: Two handbooks were produced by the partners on the topic of failure mechanisms: one describes basic failure analysis techniques for IGBTs and the other covers failure mechanisms. The predominant failure mechanisms were identified to be the degradation of insulation and solder fatigue rather than bond lift-off. The insulation failure mechanisms were particularly investigated in ABB Corporate Research. A special set up to monitor Partial Discharge activity in subassemblies and modules was built. On the other hand, the use of Aluminum Siliconcarbide metal matrix composite as base-plate material instead of copper showed in thermal cycling and power cycling tests a highly improved lifetime related to solder fatigue failure mechanism.
The project RAPSDRA was operated by a team of major European power semiconductor manufacturers. It had the goal to enable the manufacturers of traction equipment to use IGBT power modules for their next generation traction converters. Since the reliability of these components is one of the critical issues, a research effort was taken to gain knowledge on reliability related to traction application and provide data and information to the traction manufacturers and end users. Today, it can be said that RAPSDRA has brought IGBT technology a large step forward by improving the reliability tests and achieving agreement on standardised accelerated tests.
The project was structured into 10 tasks, which had to merge into a joint proposal for IEC reliability test standards. Accelerated reliability tests were developed on the basis of an understanding of the physics of failures and were performed by several project partners. The planned agreement was reached towards the end of the project, leaving only one test open -that of the solder layer between the ceramic substrate and the base-plate. In view of the speed at which new technologies were and continue to be introduced, the reliability testing group decided to continue its activities in a working group at CENELEC TC9X WG B9 founded specifically for this purpose.
Among the RAPSDRA tasks are the following related to ABB Corporate Research Ltd.:
1. Information from the field: Measurements of semiconductor stress parameters on major european railway lines were collected and analysed by the partners. On all major intercity lines of Switzerland, data were taken on Lok2000 and BLS locomotives. These profiles were converted to virtual IGBT driven vehicles and folded with environmental temperature profiles obtained from SMA. The collected stress profiles were used in turn as input for the accelerated reliability tests.
2. Failure mechanisms: Two handbooks were produced by the partners on the topic of failure mechanisms: one describes basic failure analysis techniques for IGBTs and the other covers failure mechanisms. The predominant failure mechanisms were identified to be the degradation of insulation and solder fatigue rather than bond lift-off. The insulation failure mechanisms were particularly investigated in ABB Corporate Research. A special set up to monitor Partial Discharge activity in subassemblies and modules was built. On the other hand, the use of Aluminum Siliconcarbide metal matrix composite as base-plate material instead of copper showed in thermal cycling and power cycling tests a highly improved lifetime related to solder fatigue failure mechanism.
3. Accelerated reliability testing: Power cycling tests on a set of modules with variation of cycling time gave an indication that the cycling time is influencing the number of cycles to failure. Acceleration factors of 100 were achieved by the partners for the bond wire reliability, i.e. the testing time for an operating life of 35 years is then 4 months. Besides, the in-system reliability test was particularly successful, and represented a real innovation: three assemblies for worst-case operation were set up by the partners and used to test IGBT modules.
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Datenbankreferenzen
(Englisch)
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Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. +41 31 322 74 82
Swiss Project-Number: 95.0023-3
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