Lifetime Prediction of IGBT Modules Based on Mission Profiles in Traction Inverter Application

To improve reliability and save cost for traction inverter, the mission profiles-based lifetime prediction has been performed on the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules, the key component in traction drive system. Firstly, the mission profile is obtained from the data of DC-link voltage of the traction inverters, speed and torque of the induction motors. Secondly, the power loss is calculated based on the joint simulation of PLECE and MATLAB/Simulink, and the junction temperature fluctuation curve of IGBT modules is extracted. Then, the max value of junction temperature cycle, the amplitude of junction temperature cycle, and the corresponding cycle times are recorded through the rainflow algorithm. Finally, the data is brought into the lifetime model of IGBT modules and the lifetime estimation can be acquired.