Premium
Operational life testing of power transistors switching unclamped inductive loads
Author(s) -
White G. L.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
quality and reliability engineering international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.913
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1099-1638
pISSN - 0748-8017
DOI - 10.1002/qre.4680100110
Subject(s) - transistor , power semiconductor device , electrical engineering , power electronics , voltage , bipolar junction transistor , power (physics) , electronics , engineering , electronic engineering , reliability engineering , physics , quantum mechanics
This paper describes three types of high voltage power transistors that are in widespread use in the electronics industry today, and their susceptibility to reverse‐biased second breakdown while switching unclamped inductive loads. It provides a brief explanation of the phenomenon of second breakdown in transistors under both forward‐biased and reverse‐biased conditions. It describes a stress circuit that has been developed to incorporate switching of unclamped inductive loads as an integral part of operational life testing. A case history incorporating this technique is presented for the 2SD1739 high voltage NPN bipolar power transistor.