Junction Temperature Control for More Reliable Power Electronics

TLDR

Thermal stress is a leading cause of failure in power electronic components, and effective thermal management is essential for reliable, cost‑effective energy conversion. This paper investigates control strategies for semiconductor junction temperature, reviews emerging applications, and identifies open research questions in the field. It analyzes modulation, control, and system‑level variable modifications that alter loss generation or distribution, and reviews literature solutions that experimentally reduce thermal stress. Results show that controller tuning must be mission‑profile dependent to achieve an optimal cost‑benefit trade‑off, and that verification of actual lifetime extension is still lacking.

Abstract

The thermal stress of power electronic components is one of the most important causes of their failure. Proper thermal management plays an important role for more reliable and cost-effective energy conversion. As one of the most vulnerable and expensive components, power semiconductor components are the focus of this paper. Possible approaches to control the semiconductor junction temperature are discussed in this paper, along with the implementation in several emerging applications. The modification of the control variables at different levels (modulation, control, and system) to alter the loss generation or distribution is analyzed. Some of the control solutions presented in the literature, which showed experimentally that the thermal stress can be effectively reduced, are reviewed in detail. These results are often mission-profile dependent and the controller needs to be tuned to reach the desired cost-benefit tradeoff. This paper analyzes also the many open questions of this research area. Among them, it is worth highlighting that a verification of the actual lifetime extension is still missing.