Hitachi Energy - Condition Monitoring for Silicon Carbide MOSFETs
Condition Monitoring for Silicon Carbide MOSFETs M.Sc. Internship/thesis proposal
Period/Target/Workload
2nd Semester/Electrical Engineering, Mechatronic Engineering/15 ECTS-CFU
Background
The Power Electronics Innovation Center (PEIC) at Politecnico di Torino (PoliTO) strives daily for innovation in the Automotive and Industrial sectors. At the start of 2025, PEIC initiated a scientific collaboration with Hitachi Energy Ltd. (HE), Zurich, Switzerland, focusing on reliability assessment techniques for Silicon Carbide (SiC) power MOSFETs. In that respect, PoliTO opens an internship/thesis opportunity for motivated master’s students interested in new-generation power devices and their reliability.
Objective
A thorough reliability assessment and understanding of SiC MOSFET degradation mechanisms are essential, as condition monitoring (CM) is an effective way to ensure operational continuity and gain a deeper understanding of how switching power devices degrade. CM aims to capture during real-life operation 1) the junction temperature and 2) the state of health. A testing board has been developed by Hitachi Energy for double-pulse testing of SiC MOSFETs rated up to 3.3 kV, on which a condition-monitoring plug-in must be designed and tested.
The objective of this project is twofold: a) to identify possible and viable CM approaches for SiC MOSFETs and b) to test a subset of them. Among several CM techniques, photoluminescence is a particularly promising one due to its intrinsic noninvasiveness.
Working plan
The working plan will be split into two phases: 1) a preliminary study, carried out at PoliTO, and 2) a testing and validation phase, carried out at HE.
Deliverables
The following deliverables are expected from the student in this project:
• Hardware prototype showing a proof of concept
• Final report
Language
English
Contact Person
Francesco Iannuzzo, francesco.iannuzzo@polito.it
(235,96 kB)