Analysis of the Degradation of MOSFETs in Switching Mode Power Supply by Characterizing Source Oscillator Signals

Switching Mode Power Supply (SMPS) has been widely applied in aeronautics, nuclear power, high-speed railways, and other areas related to national strategy and security. The degradation of MOSFET occupies a dominant position in the key factors affecting the reliability of SMPS. MOSFETs are used as l...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Xueyan Zheng, Lifeng Wu, Yong Guan, Xiaojuan Li
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hindawi Limited 2013-01-01
Series:Mathematical Problems in Engineering
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/302563
Description
Summary:Switching Mode Power Supply (SMPS) has been widely applied in aeronautics, nuclear power, high-speed railways, and other areas related to national strategy and security. The degradation of MOSFET occupies a dominant position in the key factors affecting the reliability of SMPS. MOSFETs are used as low-voltage switches to regulate the DC voltage in SMPS. The studies have shown that die-attach degradation leads to an increase in on-state resistance due to its dependence on junction temperature. On-state resistance is the key indicator of the health of MOSFETs. In this paper, an online real-time method is presented for predicting the degradation of MOSFETs. First, the relationship between an oscillator signal of source and on-state resistance is introduced. Because oscillator signals change when they age, a feature is proposed to capture these changes and use them as indicators of the state of health of MOSFETs. A platform for testing characterizations is then established to monitor oscillator signals of source. Changes in oscillator signal measurement were observed with aged on-state resistance as a result of die-attach degradation. The experimental results demonstrate that the method is efficient. This study will enable a method to predict the failure of MOSFETs to be developed.
ISSN:1024-123X
1563-5147