FACTORS AFFECTING TRANSISTOR FAILURE IN DC TO DC CONVERTERS

摘要

The purpose of this report is to indicate assignable causes of failure of transistors in dc to dc converters. While seemingly power transistor converter failures occur with no apparent cause after many cycles of operation, an examination of the load characteristics can reveal a potential failure pattern. The load line characteristic coupled with the safe area limits of the transistor has revealed potential failure patterns in converters described in this report. This analysis has led to a much better understanding of transistor failures observed with the types of converters analyzed.