Mission Profile Based System-Level Reliability Analysis of DC/DC Converters for a Backup Power Application

Reliability analysis is an important tool for assisting the design phase of a power electronic converter to fulfill its life-cycle specifications. Existing converter-level reliability analysis methods have two major limitations: 1) being based on constant failure rate models; and 2) lack of consideration of long-term operation conditions (i.e., mission profile). Although various studies have been presented on power electronic component-level lifetime prediction based on wear-out failure mechanisms and mission profile, it is still a challenge to apply the same method to the reliability analysis of converters with multiple components. Component lifetime prediction based on associated models provides only a B_X lifetime information (i.e., the time when X% items fail), but the time-dependent reliability curve is still not available. In this paper, a converter-level reliability analysis approach is proposed based on time-dependent failure rate models and long-term mission profiles. Two different methods to obtain the component-level time-to-failure are illustrated by a case study of dc/dc converters for a 5 kW fuel cell-based backup power system. The reliability analysis of the converters with and without redundancy is also performed to assist the decision making in the design phase of the fuel cell power conditioning stage.