Wear-Out Failure of a Power Electronic Converter Under Inversion and Rectification Modes

The expected lifetime of a power electronic converter is limited by its fragile components such as semiconductor devices and capacitors. These components are prone to wear-out failures depending on the converter mission profile and component thermal characteristics. This paper explores the wear-out failure of the power converter semiconductor devices in inverting and rectifying modes of the converter using different power factors. The obtained results show the different wear-out characteristics of a converter under rectification, inversion, and also partial-inversion/rectification modes as well as when provides reactive power support. Moreover, this paper proposes B10 lifetime curves to estimate the converter reliability based on the operating conditions. Simulations and preliminary experiments evaluate the impact of the operating conditions for the converter reliability.