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Thermal Management Details and their Influence on the Aging of Power Semiconductors

The major factor defining the wear and tear in power electronic components is temperature swing. The paper presents an insight to failure mechanisms and the benefits that can be gained if a holistic approach considering devices, adequate design-in and advanced thermal management is considered. The German “Energiewende” is among the projects predestined to hint out, what is expected of power electronic components today and what the challenges are, semiconductor manufacturers have to cope with. Renewable energy generation, lead by windmills and solar arrays, shall replace common centralized power plants within the next decades. Plants driven by fossil fuels like coal or gas are well known for their reliability and availability. Changing the German supply to renewable energies will have to achieve at least the same reliability and availability, leading to corresponding demands for the power electronic components involved. Windmills today are designed for a service life of 25 years, representing 50.000 operating hours at full power. This resembles almost 10 times the lifetime of a typical car. The demand in solar applications is similar and upcoming applications like energy storing systems (ESS) will be evenly challenging.

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Aug 28, 2014