Degradation effect on reliability evaluation of aluminum electrolytic capacitor in backup power converter

DC capacitors in power electronic converters are a major constraint on improvement of power density as well as reliability. In this paper, according to the degradation data of electrolytic capacitors through the accelerated test, the time-to-failure of the capacitor cell is acquired and it can be further extended to lower stress levels. Then, in a case study of a fuel cell backup power application, the mission profile based lifetime expectancy of the individual capacitor and the capacitor bank is estimated in terms of the standby mode and operation mode. The lifetime prediction of the capacitor banks can be obtained and compared with and without the degradation effect.