IEEE Power Electronics Magazine Compendium - March 2018 - 118

Wind
Speeds

Ambient
Temp.

Lifetime
Model

TA
Strength of Device
Electric
Thermal
Control
Thermal
Turbine and Ref. Control and Parameter
Loss Thermal
Stress Rainflow Cycles Reliability
Device
Impedance
Electrical
Generator
Counting
Mapping
Loss Model
Model
Models
Models
Vw

Lifetime

FIG 21 A flow diagram used for the lifetime prediction of power devices with the given wind power inverter and mission profiles.

Consumed B10
Lifetime/Year (%)

about the authors
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0

0.8

0.37

0.018
B Solder

C Solder

Bond Wire

FIG 22 The consumed B10 lifetime of IGBT by long-term thermal cycles for one year (lifetime models from [38] are used, only
considering thermal cycles ranging from 3 hours to one year, B
solder means base plate solder, C solder means chip solder).

enabling evaluation of the influence of the converter operations/designs on the reliability performance of the system.
The reliability metrics can also be used to guide the design
targets and maintenance schedules of products-leading to
cost reductions in energy use.

Conclusions
Reliability engineering research on power electronics is
currently undergoing a paradigm shift to a more
physics-of-failure approach, which provides a better
understanding of failure causes and better assessment/
design for the reliability performance of converter systems. However, the modeling and testing methods, as well
as the analyzing tools, for power electronics need to be
updated and further integrated to enable this paradigm
shift. This article gives an overview of the new design flow
in the reliability engineering of power electronics and discusses some of the emerging methods in this field. A new
analysis flow is discussed and demonstrated, with the
introduction to the multidisciplinary/multitime scale simulations, strength modeling of components, translation of
mission profiles, and statistical analysis of parameters.
Much more work has to be done in the future-not only on
the modeling side but also in terms of testing and validation of the new methods. Finally, turning the methods into
a more physics-based approach will enable a more
advanced health management system of future products.

118

IEEE PowEr ElEctronIcs MagazInE

z December 2016

Ke Ma (kema@sjtu.edu.cn) received his B.Sc. and M.Sc.
degrees from the Zhejiang University, China, in 2007 and
2010, respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree from Aalborg
University, Denmark, in 2013, where he was an assistant professor and a work package leader with the Center of Reliable
Power Electronics from 2014 to 2016. He was with Vestas
Wind Systems A/S, Denmark, in 2015. In 2016, he joined the
faculty of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, under the
Thousand Talents Plan Program for Young Professionals. His
research interests include the modeling and enhancement of
power electronics reliability in the application of renewable
energy production and motor drive systems. Since 2014, he
has served as an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on
Industry Applications and was the recipient of several prize
paper awards from the IEEE. He is a Member of the IEEE.
Huai Wang (hwa@et.aau.dk) received his B.E. degree from
Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China,
in 2007 and his Ph.D. degree from City University of Hong Kong
in 2012. He is currently an associate professor and a work package leader with the Center of Reliable Power Electronics, Aalborg University, Denmark. His research addresses the fundamental challenges in modeling and validation of the failure
mechanisms of active and passive power electronic components and application issues in system-level predictability, circuit architecture, and robustness design. He contributed the
first few concept papers in the area of power electronics reliability, filed four patents in capacitive dc-link inventions, and
coedited a book. He was with the ABB Corporate Research
Center, Switzerland, in 2009. He received the IEEE Power Electronics Society Richard M. Bass Outstanding Young Power
Electronics Engineer Award in 2016. He has been an associate
editor of IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics since 2015.
Frede Blaabjerg (fbl@et.aau.dk) received his Ph.D.
degree from Aalborg University, Denmark. He was with ABBScandia, Randers, Denmark, from 1987 to 1988. His research
interests include power electronics and their applications such
as in wind turbines, photovoltaic systems, reliability, harmonics, and adjustable speed drives. He has received 17 IEEE prize
paper awards, the IEEE Power Electronics Society Distinguished Service Award in 2009, the International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference Council Award in 2010,
the IEEE William E. Newell Power Electronics Award in 2014,
and the Villum Kann Rasmussen Research Award in 2014. He

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