Mentor Graphics Corporation announced the new MicReD® Industrial Power Tester 1500A for power cycling and thermal testing of electronics components to simulate and measure lifetime performance. The MicReD Industrial Power Tester 1500A tests the reliability of power electronic components that are increasingly used in industries such as automotive and transportation including hybrid and electrical vehicles and trains, power generation and converters, and renewable energy applications such as wind turbines. It is the only commercially available thermal testing product that combines both power cycling and thermal transient measurements with structure function analysis while providing data for real-time failure-cause diagnostics.
This new product is built for industrial electronic manufacturers to test reliability by examining the thermally induced degradations within the module stack-up. Both power cycling and thermal transient measurements are conducted on the MicReD Power Tester 1500A, without needing to remove the components from the test environment. A technician or engineer is able to see the failure as it progresses and determine the exact time/cycle and cause.
The MicReD Power Tester 1500Ais based on the Mentor Graphics® T3Ster® advanced thermal tester used in industries worldwide for accurate thermal characterization of semiconductor device packages and LEDs. The Power Tester 1500A is the first product in the MicReD Industrial line and it provides fully automated power cycling and testing (both thermal and electrical measurement) of power modules to provide comprehensive data for failure cause assessment. This enables organizations to make product improvements for reliability and extended performance. The MicReD industrial products incorporate the laboratory-level accuracy of the T3Ster product in robust machines for operators to use inside manufacturing facilities.
The MicReD Industrial Power Tester 1500A can perform power cycling tests of metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs), insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) and power diodes. The MicReD Power Tester 1500A provides a user-friendly touch-screen interface and can record a broad range of information during test, such as current, voltage and die temperature sensing; and detailed structure function analysis to record changes in the package's thermal structure. This makes it an ideal platform for package development and quality checking of incoming parts before production.
Key Advantages of the MicReD Industrial Power Tester 1500A:
· Continuous power cycling until failure which saves time because the component doesn't need to be removed, taken for lab testing then back to tester for more cycles.
· Enables multiple samples to be tested concurrently.
· Different powering strategies (constant power on/off time, constant case temperature swing, and constant junction temperature rise) can be applied during operation.
· Provides "real-time" structure function diagnostics to show failure in progress, number of cycles, and failure cause.
· Eliminates the need for lab post-mortem (x-ray, ultrasonic, visual) or destructive failure analysis.
· Features touch-screen setup and controls enabling use by both specialists and production personnel.
