Reliability Assessment of Conventional Isolated PWM DC-DC Converters

• Main Authors: Hadi Tarzamni, Farhad Panahandeh Esmaeelnia, Farzad Tahami, Mahmud Fotuhi-Firuzabad, Payman Dehghanian, Matti Lehtonen, Frede Blaabjerg
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2021-01-01
• Series: IEEE Access
• Subjects: Isolated single-switch DC-DC converter (ISSDC-DC); isolated multiple-switch DC-DC converter (IMSDC-DC); fault analysis; Markov process; reliability
• Online Access: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9382999/

This paper sets forth the reliability analysis of conventional isolated pulse width modulation DC-DC (IDC-DC) converters. The IDC-DC converters are categorized into isolated single-switch DC-DC (ISSDC-DC) or multiple-switch DC-DC (IMSDC-DC) converters. The proposed framework encompasses analyzing the impacts of duty cycle, input voltage, output power, transformer turns ratio, components characteristics and time duration on the overall reliability performance of the IDC-DC converters. The suggested reliability assessment is centered on Markov models characterized by taking into consideration all open and short circuit faults on the components in both continuous and discontinuous conduction modes. We further investigate the self-embedded fault tolerant capability of the IMSDC-DC converters under open circuit fault scenarios on the switches, diodes and blocking capacitors, where we offer new reliability analytics. Along with extensive analyses and comparisons, several experimental results are provided to verify the self-embedded fault tolerant capability of IMSDC-DC converters.