Method for controlling health of multi-die power module and multi-die health monitoring device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10886871-B2
Application number	US-201816480606-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 7, 2018
Priority date	Mar 31, 2017
Publication date	Jan 5, 2021
Grant date	Jan 5, 2021

Abstract

A multi-die health monitoring device:
sets, at a given current provided to the load by the group of dies, one of the dies in a non-conducting state (NCS), obtains, when the die is in the NCS, a signal that is representative of the temperature of the die and determines the temperature of the die, obtains, when the die is in the NCS, a signal that is representative of an on-state voltage (OSV) of the die and determines the OSV of the die, retrieves in a table stored in a memory of the multi-die health monitoring device, an OSV that corresponds to the given current and the determined temperature of the die, notifies that the multi-die power module has to be replaced, if the difference between the determined OSV of the die and the retrieved OSV is equal or upper than a predetermined value.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for controlling the health of a multi-die power module comprising plural dies, a multi-die health monitoring device receiving an input signal and driving the dies of the multi-die power module, at least one group of dies of the multi-die power module providing current to a load, wherein the method is executed by the multi-die health monitoring device and comprises:
setting, at a given current provided to the load by the group of dies, one die of the group of dies in a non-conducting state,
obtaining, when the die is in the non-conducting state, a signal that is representative of the temperature of the non-conducting die and determining the temperature of the non-conducting die,
obtaining, when the die is in the non-conducting state, a signal that is representative of an on-state voltage of the non-conducting die and determining the on-state voltage value of the non-conducting die,
retrieving in a table stored in a memory of the multi-die health monitoring device, an on-state voltage that corresponds to the given current and the determined temperature of the non-conducting die,
indicating that the multi-die power module should be replaced, if the difference between the determined on-state voltage value of the non-conducting die and the retrieved on-state voltage is equal or upper than a predetermined value.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined value is equal to twenty percent of the retrieved on-state voltage.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the given current value is comprised between +/−15 percents of the peak current value provided to the load.

4. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the signal that is representative of the temperature of the non-conducting die and the signal that is representative of the on-state voltage of the non-conducting die are obtained by providing a current to a gate of a FET of the non-conducting die.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the signal that is representative of the temperature of the non-conducting die is obtained from a measurement of an internal gate resistor value of a FET of the non-conducting die during a first predetermined time duration and the signal that is representative of the on-state voltage of the non-conducting die is obtained from a measurement of an equivalent capacitor value of the non-conducting die during a second time period following the first time period.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the method is executed sequencially for each die of the group of dies.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the multi-die power module comprises plural dies and in that the method is executed for each group of dies.

8. A multi-die health monitoring device for controlling the health of a multi-die power module comprising plural dies, the multi-die health monitoring device receiving an input signal and driving the dies of the multi-die power module, at least one group of dies of the multi-die power module providing current to a load, wherein the multi-die health monitoring device comprising processing circuitry:
to set, at a given current provided to the load by the group of dies, one die of the group of dies in a non-conducting state,
to obtain, when the die is in the non-conducting state, a signal that is representative of the temperature of the non-conducting die and for determining the temperature of the non-conducting die,
to obtain, when the die is in the non-conducting state, a signal that is representative of an on-state voltage of the non-conducting die and for determining the on-state voltage value of the non-conducting die,
to retrieve in a table stored in a memory of the multi-die health monitoring device, an on-state voltage that corresponds to the given current and the determined temperature of the non-conducting die,
to notify that the multi-die power module has to be replaced, if the difference between the determined on-state voltage value of the non-conducting die and the retrieved on-state voltage is equal or upper than a predetermined value.

9. The multi-die health monitoring device according to claim 8 , wherein the predetermined value is equal to twenty percent of the retrieved on-state voltage.

10. The multi-die health monitoring device according to claim 9 , wherein the signal that is representative of the temperature of the non-conducting die and the signal that is representative of the on-state voltage of the non-conducting die are obtained by providing a current to a gate of the FET of the non-conducting die.

11. The multi-die health monitoring device according to claim 10 , wherein the signal that is representative of the temperature of the non-conducting die is obtained from a measurement of an internal gate resistor value of the FET of the die during a first predetermined time duration and the signal that is representative of the on-state voltage of the non-conducting die is obtained from a measurement of an equivalent capacitor value of the non-conducting die during a second time period following the first time period.

Assignees

• Mitsubishi Electric Corp

Inventors

• Ewanchuk Jeffrey
• Brandelero Julio

Classifications

• G01R31/40

  Testing power supplies (testing photovoltaic devices H02S50/10) · CPC title

• H02P29/68 Primary

  based on the temperature of a drive component or a semiconductor component · CPC title

• G01R31/2642

  Testing semiconductor operation lifetime or reliability, e.g. by accelerated life tests · CPC title

• G01R31/2817 Primary

  Environmental-, stress-, or burn-in tests (of IC's G01R31/2855; of individual semiconductors G01R31/2642; of other circuits G01R31/2849) · CPC title

• G01R31/2608

  for testing bipolar transistors · CPC title