Electro-thermal Management Using In-situ Junction Thermal Estimates for Enhanced Device Reliability
Abstract
Wide bandgap (WBG)-based power electronics have become one of the most critical system components in Medium Voltage Direct Current (,MVDC) Ship Power Systems (SPS). Different ship missions may require various operation points of the power system which can cause pow,er cycling on power electronics devices. Emerging WBG semiconductors have the highest probability for failure and the most relevant,failure mechanisms are related to power cycling which is the main reason for thermal cycling. Therefore, power cycling and thermal c,ycling must be controlled during the converter operation. In the prior work on electrothermal management sponsored by ONR, a model-b,ased junction temperature estimation is used. The accuracy of the model-based solution is hard to be guaranteed over the converter l,ifetime considering aging effects of the devices and thermal interfaces. Proposed control also does not provide the close-loop therm,al management. The research objective is to advance state-of-the-art electrothermal management using in-situ junction thermal estima,tes and close-loop control of WBG-based power electronics for enhanced converter reliability and improved SPS availability. The prop,osed technology will combine recent developments in Power Electronic Building Blocks (PEBBs) following a three-step technical approa,ch. It includes 1) in-situ WBG device junction temperature measurement in real-time considering device parameter mismatch and aging,effects; 2) active converter thermal management depending on the intelligent gate drive with tunable loss control; 3) close-loop sys,tem electrothermal management with converter lifetime prediction and system-level operation optimization (e.g. energy routing).At th,e completion of the project, we expect to achieve: 1) online junction temperature monitoring method considering WBG device mismatch,and aging effect with 1 oC measurement tolerance over the converter lifetime; 2) active thermal management to reduce the thermal cyc,ling for PEBB-basedpower converters; 3) degradation prediction model and energy routing algorithm that improve system reliability an,d improve the lifetime of PEBBs.Keywords: Power Electronic Building Blocks, Thermal Management, Enhanced Gate Drive, Semiconductor R,eliability
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 05, 2022
- Source ID
- N000142212558
Entities
People
- Christopher S. Edrington
Organizations
- Clemson University
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy