Author(s): Patricia Randazzo

Presentation: oral

Power electronics-the application of solid-state electronics for the control and conversion of electrical power-is a main factor in many electrical systems. Understanding the limitations, life cycles, and functional parameters of electrical components are essential for engineering, development, and safety purposes. Of the many important components used in electronics, this project focuses mainly on testing parameters of a specific kind of transistor (an electrical component which has two functions: amplifying and switching electronic signals and power) called a Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFETs). This experiment’s objective is to confirm the accelerated aging process via thermal overstress results in degradation of the device's die-attachment (the junction of the electrical pieces to the circuit board, a.k.a. the solder) of a IRL2910 (a logic-level HEXFET power MOSFET). The accelerated aging process used thermal and electrical stresses. Furthermore, one can used in-situ measurements from electro-thermal transient response to assess the functional state of the MOSFETs. Preliminary results showed an increase in functional performance and a seeming adaptation to the experimental thermal parameters, countering our objective of confirming degradation by die-attachment. Future experimentation will investigate this adaptive behavior. This project was funded by the Undergraduate Student Research Program at the NASA Ames Research Center.

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