Method and system for characterizing junction temperatures of power diodes of a voltage source inverter

Abstract

A method is provided for characterizing junction temperatures of power diodes devices, each of the diode devices being one-to-one connected in antiparallel to each power semiconductor switching devices of a voltage source inverter having processing and measuring capability, the method including: an initialization stage, wherein a heater is thermally coupled with a heatsink and/or with a direct bonded copper element of the voltage source inverter; a temperature setting stage, wherein the temperature of the direct bonded copper element and/or the heatsink is increased up to a maximum operative temperature; a commissioning stage, wherein at each current pulse of a current pulses train sampled data are collected in a sampling period wherein the corresponding power semiconductor switching device connected with at least one of the power semiconductor diode devices is turned-off; an output stage, wherein the processor generates, from the sampled data, processed data for at least one of the power semiconductor diode devices.