POWER ELECTRONICS LAB

The NTNU Power Electronics laboratory infrastructure serves the research focus that is on characterization, modelling and integration of power semiconductor devices in power converters, as well as design, optimization and testing of high-performance power electronics. Reliability assessment of power semiconductors and development of lifetime models is also within the focus of the laboratory activities. The laboratory is organized in 8 working stations, which are reconfigured according to the requirements of the ongoing experiments.

The laboratory uses advanced equipment for static and dynamic characterization of Silicon and Wide Bandgap (WBG) power semiconductors. This includes:

• Low-inductive test circuits with maximum ratings of 3 kV and 1 kA.

• High-bandwidth differential voltage probes (2.5 kV / 500 MHz) and current probes (1 kA peak / 120 MHz).

• Power device analyzer with maximum testing conditions of 3 kV and 500 A for static characterization of power semiconductors (e.g., static transfer characteristics, device capacitances etc.).

For designing power converters, the research focus is beyond the integration of power semiconductors devices in traditional packaging. We focus on integrating WBG semiconductor dies in special power module designs using the following equipment:

• Bond wire and die attach machines.

• 3D printers for fabricating encapsulations

• Reflow, vapour-phase soldering oven

• Vacuuming chamber and a high-temperature curing chamber for encapsulation of power devices

• Ultrasonic cleaning setup of the DBC substrates

A power cycling test (PCT) setup for reliability assessment of power semiconductor devices is also available at the NTNU Power Electronics laboratory. This setup is capable of running PCTs at various conditions:

• Testing current 5-100 A, which can be expanded to several 100s A.

• Cooling plate temperatures between -5^oC to 80^oC using a closed-system heat exchanger.

• Possibility for testing discrete devices and power modules.

And uses a data acquisition system based on NI Labview for monitoring electrical and thermal variables during PCTs.

Apart from the equipment listed above, the laboratory uses traditional equipment for developing and testing power converters:

• A dedicated control platform based on System-On-Chip with dual-core processors at 1 GHz clock frequency.

• High-bandwidth oscilloscopes up to 1 GHz with a wide selection of voltage and current probes

• Impedance and network analyzer for frequencies up to 120 MHz and wide selection of measurement fixtures.

• Network analyzer for frequencies up to 3 GHz.

• Power supplies with variable output voltage and current levels (maximum voltage of 10 kV and maximum current of 1 kA)

• Controllable power supplies/emulators up to 15 kW at 600 V

• Electronic loads with maximum voltage of 1200 V and current of 450 A