Objective Objectives and content Power modules in IGBT (insulated gate bipolar transistor) technology are now at the threshold of their introduction to railway traction appilcations. Owing to the very rigorous operating conditions involved, above all the large temperature fluctuations between winter and summer and the frequency of the on and off states, very high demands are made on the reliability of these power devices: thus they must operate for 35 years without failures. However, the number of power devices used in railway traction applications will always be relatively small, so that the reliability requirements cannot be simply verified by experiment. Hence the concept of buiit-In reliability must be consistently implemented. The core of the activities planned for the project therefore consists of the elaboration of accelerated reliability tests, whose scientific basis consists of the failure mechanisms and the corresponding models. The requirements profiles of the tests are determined from the line profiles under normal and abnormal operating conditions. The end-users, i.e. the railway operators, will be involved in the work of defining the line profiles. All major applications, from tramways to high-speed trains, will be examined in this process. In addition to testing the IGBT power modules separately, it appears to be particularly important to test them within the system as well. To this end, assemblies for worst-case operation (AWCOs) are to be developed and operated for test purposes. Planned flanking measures include work on alternative contacting techniques as well as an investigation into whether any reliability indicators exist that allow module degradation to be indicated in a simple way. The reliability simulation of the system should permit a reliability prediction to be made on the basis of models for failure modes. All these activities should result in the concluding of an agreement on standardized reliability tests by the end-users (railway operators), the power semiconductor manufacturers and the transportation industry. This agreement should then be proposed as an IE standard. Fields of science natural sciencesphysical scienceselectromagnetism and electronicssemiconductivitysocial sciencessocial geographytransport Programme(s) FP4-BRITE/EURAM 3 - Specific research and technological development programme in the field of industrial and materials technologies, 1994-1998 Topic(s) 0203 - Reliability and quality of materials and products Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme CSC - Cost-sharing contracts Coordinator EUPEC GMBH & CO. KGAA EU contribution No data Address 5,Max-Planck-Strasse 5 59581 WARSTEIN Germany See on map Total cost No data Participants (15) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all ABB Semiconductors AG Switzerland EU contribution No data Address 3,Fabrikstrasse 5600 Lenzburg See on map Total cost No data ANSALDO RICERCHE SPA* Italy EU contribution No data Address CORSO PERRONE 25 16152 GENOVA See on map Total cost No data Ansaldo Trasporti SpA Italy EU contribution No data Address Via N. Lorenzi 8 16152 Genova See on map Total cost No data Asea Brown Boveri Limited Switzerland EU contribution No data Address 5405 Baden See on map Total cost No data Deutsche Bahn AG Germany EU contribution No data Address 59,Ruschestrasse 10365 Berlin See on map Total cost No data Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Electronique et de Radioélectricité de Bordeaux France EU contribution No data Address 351,Cours de la Libération 351 33405 Talence See on map Total cost No data Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule - ETH Zürich Switzerland EU contribution No data Address 35,Gloriastrasse 8092 Zürich See on map Total cost No data Ferrovie dello Stato SpA Italy EU contribution No data Address Via Casarini 25 40131 Bologna See on map Total cost No data GEC Plessey Semiconductors plc United Kingdom EU contribution No data Address Carholme Road LN1 1SG Lincoln See on map Total cost No data INSTITUT NATIONAL DE RECHERCHE SUR LES TRANSPORTS ET LEUR SCURIT France EU contribution No data Address Avenue du GTnTral Malleret-Joinville 94114 Arcueil See on map Total cost No data Siemens AG Germany EU contribution No data Address 6,Otto-Hahn-Ring 81730 München See on map Total cost No data Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français France EU contribution No data Address 15,Rue Travensière 75012 Paris See on map Total cost No data University of Cambridge United Kingdom EU contribution No data Address Trumpington Street CB2 1PZ Cambridge See on map Total cost No data Università degli Studi di Parma Italy EU contribution No data Address Viale delle Scienze 43100 Parma See on map Total cost No data Universität Dortmund Germany EU contribution No data Address 68,Emil-Figge Strasse 44227 Dortmund See on map Total cost No data