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Comparison between active and passive thermal cycling stress with respect to substrate solder reliability in IGBT modules with Cu baseplates

The reliability of the solder joint between substrate and base plate of an IGBT module can be tested using passive thermal cycling (TC) or active power cycling (PC). Naturally the active power cycling is more relevant for most applications. On the other side, the passive test serves better to separate the substrate solder aging from other fatigue mechanisms observed in power cycling. This paper focuses on a common understanding of the most relevant stress parameters that dominate the solder aging in both types of tests. This is done by end of life investigations and thermal modeling supported by measurements. During their life time IGBT modules see much thermal stress, mostly caused by internal heating of the dies but also by external thermal cycles, like day night cycles or varying temperature levels of the cooling system during operation. To ensure the module reliability especially with respect to the large area solder joints between substrate and baseplate two different test methods are used at Infineon. The first method is active power cycling. As second method there is thermal cycling (TC) by means of externally heating and cooling the device.

• 704.10 KB
• 2014/05/31