Diagnosis of Intermittent Faults in IGBTs Using the Latent Nestling Method with Hybrid Coloured Petri Nets

Abstract

This paper presents a fault diagnosis application of the Latent Nestling Method to IGBTs. The paper extends the Latent Nestling Method based in Coloured Petri Nets (CPNs) to hybrid systems in such a manner that IGBTs performance can be modeled. CPNs allow for an enhanced capability for synthesis and modeling in contrast to the classical phenomena of combinational state explosion when Finite State Machine methods are applied. We present an IGBT model with different fault modes including those of intermittent nature that can be used advantageously as predictive symptoms within a predictive maintenance strategy. Ageing stress tests have been experimentally applied to the IGBTs modules and intermittent faults are diagnosed as precursors of permanent failures. In addition, ageing is validated with morphological analysis (Scanning Electron Microscopy) and semiqualitative analysis (Energy Dispersive Spectrometry).