Reliability investigation on SiC BJT power module

In this paper reliability investigation results for a power module fully based on silicon carbide (SiC) devices are presented. The module comprises four SiC bipolar junction transistors (BJT) and four SiC diodes in half-bridge configuration and is part of a newly developed 3-phase inverter for construction vehicles as well as for passenger car applications. The reliability investigations include electro-thermal and thermo-mechanical finite element simulations as well as power cycling tests with subsequent failure analyses. Furthermore, a double-sided cooling approach for the SiC BJT power module will be described and its thermal performance compared to the single-sided cooling version.