edfas.org 37 ELECTRONIC DEVICE FAILURE ANALYSIS | VOLUME 26 NO. 1 A SUMMARY OF THE ISTFA 2023 PANEL DISCUSSION: CHARGING FORWARD: NAVIGATING RELIABILITY AND FAILURES IN POWER ELECTRONICS Chuan Zhang,* Erwin Hendarto,** and Renee Parente*** ISTFA 2023 Panel Discussion Organizers *Nvidia, Santa Clara, Calif. — chuanz@nvidia.com **Silicon Labs, Austin, Texas — erwin.hendarto@silabs.com ***AMD, Austin, Texas — renee.parente@amd.com The 2023 ISTFA Panel Discussion Session delved into a critical topic echoing the symposium’s theme: Moving Toward Reliable Power Electronics. Power electronics is often the unsung hero of modern innovations such as generative AI, electric cars, solar energy harvesting, and more. And notably, the reliability of power electronic devices is crucial for not only company success but also the safety and well-being of individuals. Leading the audience through the field of reliability and failures of power electronics were four esteemed panelists. Prof. Joseph Bernstein from Ariel University, Prof. Aristos Christou from University of Maryland, Dr. Helmut Angerer from Infineon Technologies, and Nicholas Richardson from Wolfspeed shared their valuable insights throughout the panel discussion. They represented both academia and industry as experts in reliability, physics, and failure analysis of power electronic devices. The panelists started by presenting diverse perspectives that resonated with the audience. Joseph Bernstein, a professor at Ariel University in Israel, heads the Laboratory for Reliable Integrated Electronics. He has developed crucial lifetime prediction models, consulted with various companies, and significantly impacted the field through his research. He started by presenting theories of reliability predictions and the latest progress. Aristos Christou, from the University of Maryland, pioneered the physics of failure of semiconductor materials and devices, contributing significantly to fields such as reliable nitride semiconductors and photonic devices and systems. He talked about defects in thick epitaxial GaN in his presentation from a materials science perspective. Helmut Angerer serves as the director of the Failure Analysis Department at Infineon Technologies Austria. The 2023 panel discussion featured four panelists and a lively Q&A session.
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