Overview of recent progress in condition monitoring for insulated gate bipolar transistor modules: Detection, estimation, and prediction

Abstract

The insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) is one of the most fragile components in power electronics converters. In order to improve the reliability of IGBTs, various measurements are taken according to the condition monitoring (CM) technique. Traditional CM techniques include the measurement and estimation of the device operation conditions. Recently, emerging techniques have been developed, not only for the detection and estimation but also for the prognostics of IGBTs with the condition data. In this paper, a review is performed on the recent progress in the CM techniques for IGBTs. First, some emerging electrical and thermal measurements are reviewed. Based on the sensed data, the health indicator estimation techniques are summarised. Moreover, for the emerging prognostics and health management applications, some remaining using lifetime (RUL) prediction methods are reviewed. Finally, the research gaps and directions are discussed for the CM in IGBT applications.