Power Module Solutions with Improved Reliability for Elevator Drive Applications

Abstract:
Elevator drive applications impose very stringent reliability requirements throughout their system-level lifetime. Focusing on the reliability of the power modules used in these applications, several stressors can lead to failures. The paper aims to benchmark different power module thermal technologies against an elevator drive’s standard mission profile. Using an empirical model calibrated with experimental measurements, baseplate power modules were shown to achieve higher predicted lifetime compared to the baseplate–less variants. Nonetheless, the predicted lifetime of the more cost-competitive baseplateless modules still falls well within the required lifetime for elevator drive applications.