Thermomechanical Modelling and Reliability Study of an IGBT Module for an Aeronautical Application

In this paper, an IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) module for an aeronautic application was investigated using non-linear Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Two failure modes were considered: brittle materials fracture and solder joint thermomechanical fatigue. The module reliability regarding these failure modes was evaluated over the 40000 flight cycles required for the application, under the real loading profile. Acceleration Factors (AF) were also computed with respect to Accelerated Thermal Cycling (ATC) used during the module design qualification and validation.