Investigation on the Impact of Thermo-Mechanical Stress on the Humidity Ruggedness of IGBTs by Means of Consecutive PCT and H3TRB Testing

Two important failure causes of power semiconductors are thermo-mechanical stress during operation and electro-chemical stress in humid environments. So far, both stresses are investigated separately and possible interaction of both failure mechnaisms are neglected. In this work, the effects of thermo-mechanical stress on a power device’s ruggedness against humidity are investigated by means of a consecutive PCT-H3TRB test. The results of this test indicate that previous thermo-mechanical stress impacts the H3TRB performance of the tested modules.