Assessment of the residual life of DC-DC converters based on transient process analysis

Abstract

Step-down DC-DC converters are widely used in modern electronic devices. This article describes a developed diagnostic system and proposes a method for predicting the pre-failure state of DC-DC converters based on measuring and analyzing output voltage transients under step-by-step stress and various temperature conditions (from -40 to +60 °C). It is shown that the degradation of key components (MOSFET transistors and capacitors) leads to characteristic changes in the transient parameters: damping coeffi-cient, natural frequency, and rise time. The effectiveness of this approach is experimentally confirmed using electronic cells in locomotive safety systems as an example.