PHM application of power converters using health precursor of power MOSFETs

Current statistical data show that the failure of power converters is the main cause of entire electronic system failure. This may cause enormous economic loss and even personal injury. The introduction of PHM will guarantee the system to be more efficient and safe. In the power converter subsystem, the switching component (MOSFET or IGBT) is with high failure rate during operation. Based on these, this paper focuses on DC-DC converters, and regards MOSFET failure as the main failure mode. The in-situ prognostics method of MOSFETs is also proposed. The fundamental of MOSFET failure modes and the degradation process are described first. Next, the dynamic process features are analyzed and the turn-on time is selected as a new online health precursor of MOSFET. The accelerated degradation test is used to prepare degraded MOSFET components. MOSFET specimens are then injected into the real DC-DC converter subsystem in order to verify the practicality of the proposed health precursors. Finally, a health monitoring system of DC-DC converters is made to achieve the RUL estimation based on the particle filter.