Improved HV-H3TRB robustness of a 1700 V IGBT chip set in standard power modules

Abstract High Voltage-High Humidity High Temperature Reverse Bias (HV-H3TRB) is the standard to test power modules for humidity driven degradation. This test has contributed significantly to detect and fix weak points in device designs, especially of the junction termination. Thus, the latest junction termination designs offer unprecedented humidity robustness. This work reports on a comparative HV-H3TRB test on 1.7 kV IGBT modules with chips sets of two consecutive generations tested at two different test voltages each. The progress in the chip design and material composition provides more than an order of magnitude better performance in HV-H3TRB. Failure analyses have indicated vastly reduced degrees of aluminium corrosion in the junction termination area, leading to a slowed down failure mechanism.