Mentor Graphics Launches MicReD Power Tester 600A

Mentor Graphics MicRed Power Tester 600A product tests electric and hybrid vehicle power electronics reliability during power cycling, meeting the industry’s need for accurate and scalable thermal simulation and testing.

Mentor Graphics Corporation has announced its new MicReD Power Tester 600A product, which tests electric and hybrid vehicle (EV/HEV) power electronics reliability during power cycling. With the ever wider adoption of electric and hybrid cars, Mentor Graphics says there is a greater need for this solution to help avoid thermal reliability issues that can result in EV/HEV automotive recalls.

The MicReD Power Tester 600A offering allows EV/HEV development and reliability engineers to test power electronics (such as insulated gate bipolar transistors – IGBTs, MOSFETs, transistors and chargers) for thermal reliability and lifecycle performance. It  also meets the industry’s need for power electronics thermal simulation and test, delivering unmatched accuracy and scalability according to the company.

“We apply the Power Tester 1500A to gain insight into the lifetime performance and assure the reliability of the IGBT module,” said Andy Liao, section manager, Delta Electronics via a press release. Delta Electronics develops high-efficiency and high-density power module products. “The Power Tester 600A could provide a scalable solution that would allow us to measure many discrete power devices or modules concurrently. This increased testing throughput would give us statistical failure data that we need in order to accurately predict the field lifetime of the products.”

Scalability Solves EV/HEV Power Electronics Thermal Issues

Designers of today’s EV/HEVs are faced with significant mission-critical challenges: foremost among these is ensuring the thermal reliability of power electronics modules; detecting potential degradation of IGBTs caused by a range of standard drive cycles; and identifying the underlying damage root causes.

Different types of wire bond crack failure: vertical crack in wire loop (left); vertical crack in bonded area (center); and bond heel crack (right). All rights reserved. Images courtesy of Prof. Mark Johnson, Nottingham University, UK.

Mentor’s MicReD Power Tester 600A solution is designed to provide accurate and reliable test results that scale to real-world requirements. It features:

• Diagnostics for Thermal Reliability:  The MicReD Power Tester 600A product provides a simple reliability testing process for lifecycle estimation. Device set-up is easy and power cycles are fully automated, says Mentor Graphics. The T3Ster “structure function” feature inside the Power Tester yields non-destructive “failure-in-progress” data for each IGBT. All diagnostic information is recorded during testing, from current, voltage and die temperature sensing, to “structure function” changes that point to reasons for failures in the package structure. Package development, reliability and batch checking of incoming parts can now be tested before production.
• Simulation Accuracy: Mentor Graphics says the MicReD Power Tester 600A product can power IGBT modules through tens of thousands of cycles. This provides “real-time” failure-in-progress data for diagnostics, significantly reducing test time and eliminating the need for post-mortem or destructive failure analysis. The company says associated 3D CFD (computational fluid dynamics) simulation errors can be reduced from typically up to 20% to 0.5% for accurate thermal characterization of IGBTs and components due to Mentor’s calibration technology found in the MicReD T3Ster product.
• Scalability: Up to eight MicReD 600A Power Testers can be chained together to allow users to power cycle up to 128 IGBTs simultaneously in a system test. The MicReD Power Tester 600A product delivers 48V under load, and users can deal with components mounted externally on cooling systems. The MicReD Power Tester 600A also meets the needs of emerging de facto EV/HEV power electronics testing best practices such as those currently being developed for the German automotive industry.

IGBT chip failure: Broken bond-wires and burnt areas on the chip surface due to overheating and damage of the gate oxide.

Part of a Larger Solution

The MicReD Power Tester 600A product can be coupled with Mentor’s CFD simulation technologies. Mentor’s FloTHERM and FloEFD 3D CFD software provide front-loading thermal simulation of power modules. When coupled with the Flowmaster full vehicle thermo-fluid system-of-system 1D CFD modeling tool, it yields unparalleled levels of accuracy, according to the company. This is done by MicReD’s T3Ster technology providing CFD input material properties for automated model calibration functionality to accurately simulate the real temperature response of an EV/HEV’s dynamic power input.  This combination of technologies allows users to generate accurate IGBT thermal lifetime failure estimations.

The MicReD Power Tester 600A provides data that can be used in FloTHERM to automatically calibrate a 3D CFD model of a package, reducing errors down to as low as 0.5%, according to Mentor Graphics.

“The MicReD Power Tester 600A is an extension of our total solution in automotive thermal engineering, and there is no other product like this for the EV/HEV market today,” stated Roland Feldhinkel, general manager of Mentor Graphics Mechanical Analysis Division via a press release. “We have leveraged our best-in-class products to deliver a comprehensive thermal simulation and hardware test solution that meets auto maker EV/HEV industry needs while supporting the rapid growth forecast for the market in the next few years.”

Mentor Graphics is accepting orders for the MicReD Power Tester 600A, which is scheduled to begin shipping this summer.

For more information, visit Mentor Graphics’ MicReD Power Tester 600A website.