Most damage to the power electronics of photovoltaic inverters is caused by component failure. Such failure is usually related to ageing of the components.
Figure 1 shows the distribution of components causing failure. Semiconductors and capacitors are responsible for half of the damage in power electronic systems [1].
Figure 1: Failure distribution in power electronics
In general, the failure patterns and levels in electronics are very diverse. At the two ends of such a spectrum of faults are 'open circuit' (OC) faults, a type of high impedance state, and 'short circuit' (SC) faults. In our blog series, you can read about the variety of errors between these two ends of the spectrum.
Our series on the topic of component weakening
In the following weeks we’ll discuss the individual components and their degradation effects with regard to their reliability under certain environmental conditions:
Power semiconductors (2/5)
Capacitors (3/5)
Optoelectronic elements (4/5)
Electromechanical switching devices (5/5)
[1] E. Wolfgang (2007): Examples for Failures in Power Electronics Systems, presented at ECPE Tutorial „Reliability of Power Electronic Systems“ in Nuremberg.