Work

Low-invasive condition monitoring of liquid-cooled power semiconductors

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Condition monitoring of power semiconductors is a useful tool for predicting their packaging health status under operation in power converters. To assess degradation in the packaging, it is imperative to measure or estimate the junction temperature of the dies. However, direct measurement of the junction temperature is rather impossible due to the highly integrated encapsulation structures. On the other hand, junction temperature estimation imposes the need for additional sensing circuits, which increase design and manufacturing complexity. To overcome these challenges, this paper proposes a low-invasive condition monitoring method for liquid-cooled power semiconductors, which does not require measurement or estimation of the junction temperature. The proposed method only requires thermal characterization of the liquid-cooled power semiconductor only once for the construction of the thermal network. This is done for the healthy stage of the power semiconductor. Packaging degradation is detected by measuring the actual increased power in the cooling liquid, with appropriate compensation for the share of heat dissipation to the ambient air and comparing these two values to the expected power dissipation at the given loading condition for the healthy stage using the thermal network. The proposed condition monitoring method has been experimentally validated in a down-scale laboratory setup, using both healthy and degraded Silicon Carbide metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors and under varying cooling and ambient conditions.

Source: Power Electronic Devices and Components

DOI: 10.1016/j.pedc.2026.100141

Authors: Timm Felix Baumann, Yoganandam Vivekanandham Pushpalatha, Konstantinos Papastergiou, Raul Murillo Garcia, Dimosthenis Peftitsis

Institutions: Norwegian University of Science and Technology, European Organization for Nuclear Research

Language: English

Topic: Silicon Carbide Semiconductor Technologies

Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Affordable and clean energy, Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,500