Power Device Reliability Testing
Due to smart cars(ADAS: Advanced Driver Assistance System)The development trend has led to the booming market of automotive electronics. However, with the rise of environmental awareness, electric vehicles are gradually replacing fuel vehicles, and the automotive industry has already become a global trend in transitioning from fuel vehicle production to electric vehicle production.Under the characteristics of electric vehicles, power supply has undoubtedly become the core of the entire automotive design. Therefore, high-power components on the electric vehicle control board play a crucial role, and the most representative high-power component is what has been frequently discussed recently.IGBT and MOSFET components.
Component Level Reliability Service is a series of testing processes used to verify whether power semiconductor components can maintain stable and safe operation in long-term, high-stress operating conditions regarding their electrical, structural, and material properties. The tests primarily focus on high-power components such as IGBT and MOSFET, simulating the harsh environments they may encounter in actual applications, including high temperature, high humidity, high voltage, high current, frequent switching, and mechanical stress, in order to identify potential failure risks in advance.
In electric vehicles and automotive electronic systems, power supply, power conversion, and energy management modules must endure high voltage, high current, high temperature, and frequent switching operations for extended periods. The core of their design relies on the stable operation of power components such as IGBT and MOSFET. Once a power component fails, it can lead to system derating at best, or abnormal vehicle functions and even safety risks at worst. Therefore, reliability testing of power components has become an indispensable verification process in automotive electronics, industrial power supplies, and high-power applications. MA-tek, with its comprehensive capabilities in environmental stress, lifetime simulation, and electrical verification, assists customers in fully grasping the reliability performance and failure risks of power components before product development and mass production, creating safer and more stable solutions for automotive and high-power applications.
The reliability verification of power devices mainly includes three areas: environmental stress testing, accelerated life simulation testing, and electrical verification. MA-tek provides comprehensive verification services for power devices, and the content of the verification services is as follows:
Environmental stress testing is mainly used to simulate the temperature, humidity, and mechanical stress conditions that power components may encounter during manufacturing, packaging, transportation, and actual operating environments. By using accelerated methods, potential weaknesses in materials, packaging, or structures can be exposed earlier, effectively assessing the structural stability of power components in harsh automotive and industrial environments. Common test items include:
-
Preconditioning (PC): Simulating reflow and moisture exposure conditions
-
High Accelerated Temperature and Humidity Test (Autoclave, AC / UHAST): Evaluating packaging moisture resistance and interface reliability.
-
Temperature Cycling (TC): Verify the thermal fatigue behavior of solder joints and materials.
-
Terminal Strength Test (TS): Confirm the mechanical strength of the terminal and the package.
-
Resistance to Solder Heat (RSH)
-
Thermal Resistance (TR): Assessing the heat dissipation efficiency of power components.
-
Solderability Test (Solderability, SD)
-
Whisker Growth Evaluation (WG)
-
Constant Acceleration (CA)
-
Vibration Variable Frequency (VVF)
-
Mechanical Shock Test (Mechanical Shock, MS)
Accelerated lifetime testing is one of the core items for the reliability verification of power components, applicable to IGBT and MOSFET in high-power applications such as inverters and automotive power modules.High temperature, high humidity, and bias conditionsto simulate the aging and failure behavior of components under long-term operation, MA-tek can plan suitable lifetime test conditions based on the characteristics and application scenarios of the components, common items include:
-
High Temperature High Humidity Reverse Bias Test (H3TRB): Assessing degradation caused by the interaction of moisture and electric field.
-
Intermittent Operational Life (IOL)
-
Power Temperature Cycling Test: Simulating actual on-off load scenarios
-
High Temperature Reverse Bias Test (HTRB): Assessing the long-term voltage withstand capability of the structure and junction.
-
High-Temperature Gate Bias Test (HTGB): Confirm the reliability of the gate oxide layer and dielectric.
-
Power Cycling Test (Power Cycling, PCsec / PCmin): Simulate the effects of repeated power switching and thermal stress accumulation.
Electrical verification is used to confirm the stability of the electrical parameters of power components before and after testing, and is combined with special electrical tests to assess their tolerance limits and failure modes, including:
-
Pre- / Post-Stress Electrical Test
-
MOSFETBVDSS, IDSS, IGSS, RDS(ON), Gfs (if applicable), VGS(th) / VGS(OFF)
-
IGBTBVCES, ICES, IGES, VCE(SAT), hFE, VGE(th)
-
-
Advanced Electrical and Reliability Verification
-
Parametric Verification (PV)
-
Electrostatic Discharge Testing: HBM / CDM
-
Unclamped Inductive Switching (UIS) testing
-
Short Circuit Characterization (SC)
-
Dielectric Integrity (DI) Testing
-
MCC HPB6
MCC HPB6
- Handle devices up to 1000 watts
- Water-cooled and high-force for individual temperature control per device
- 16 independent board slots
- 128 digital I/O channels + 128 output-only channel
- 24 high-power individually programmable power supplies
(250W, 175A, 0.3V to 1.8V) per board
- 24 low-power individually programmable power supplies
(60W, 15A, 0.3V to 4.0V) per board
- 64M standard and 128M optional parallel vector depth – subroutine capable
- 8 programmable high-frequency clocks, up to 350 MHz – LVDS to the BIB
INCAL SONOMA
- Handle devices up to 800 watts
- Liquid to Air heat exchanger for cabinet cooling
- Liquid to Liquid heat exchange for DUT Temp control
- Water-cooled and chilling for individual temperaturecontrol per device
- Up to 88 DUTs
- 128 digital I/O channels
- 8 Core Power supplies 0.5V to 3.3V/200A
- 8 Power Supplies 5V/12A
- 4 Quad Core 4 x 2V/40A
- 32 ADC channels
- Unlimited Vector Memory at 27M Burst
