Failure Analysis and Remedial Solutions for Power Modules

We support you in quickly and transparently identifying root causes of failure, recommend targeted remedial actions, and help you sustainably prevent moisture-related and material-induced failures.

Failure remediationMoisture or Material-Related Failure in Your Power Electronics?

We support you with a differentiated root cause analysis tailored to your specific application. Thanks to our experience from numerous projects, we can clearly identify and classify failure mechanisms.

You’ll receive concrete, case-specific corrective actions – not off-the-shelf solutions, but well-founded, application-driven recommendations.

In many cases, the root cause lies outside the suspected area – for example, in material properties due to improper processing or within the supply chain. We also support you in technical discussions with suppliers or customers – independently, transparently, and as equals.

Get in touch with us – we provide confidential and solution-oriented support.

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what we offerTargeted Support for Failures and Root Cause Analysis

Sudden field failures, unexplained leakage current increases or thermally induced damage – when power modules don’t perform as expected, fast and well-founded solutions are essential.

Our experts help you identify the root causes of failures, assess risks with precision, and implement customized corrective actions.

Ensuring the Quality of Sintered Connections: Our long-standing experience from publicly funded projects and real-world damage cases enables us to reliably analyze surface requirements for sintering. We provide clear root cause identification, especially for large-area sintered interfaces.
Ensuring the Quality of Encapsulation Processes: With extensive expertise from research projects and failure investigations in coating, potting, and molding, we provide reliable analysis of critical process parameters and clear identification of failure mechanisms.
Collaborative Root Cause Clarification: We review the results directly with your technical teams and, if desired, also engage in dialogue with suppliers. This creates a solid basis for technical decision-making.
Solution-Oriented Discussion: We assess potential corrective actions together – technically and economically – with the goal of a practical, feasible solution that can be implemented with reasonable effort.

root cause of failureDendrites in Power Modules: Hidden Risks,
Major Costs

Whether in industrial power supplies, electric mobility, or fast-charging stations – dendrites are among the most frequent yet hardest-to-predict failure causes in power modules.

What sounds like a microchemical phenomenon can in reality shut down entire production lines, lead to high return rates, or cause repair costs running into five figures. The failure itself often remains puzzling – dendrites rarely cause thermal damage but instead lead to sudden shutdowns triggered by excessive leakage currents.

What’s behind it?

The causes of dendrite formation are manifold: from electrochemical migration (ECM) and anodic migration phenomena (AMP) to creep corrosion triggered by corrosive gases or partial discharges – dendrite growth is the result of a complex interplay of material, environment, and electrical stress.

In industrial applications, the climatic conditions during operation are often difficult to reconstruct. That’s why it is crucial during failure analysis to investigate the full context in detail – especially when it comes to documenting proper use in communication with OEMs.

Assess Reliably. Act Proactively.

Together with your team, we analyze damage patterns – precisely and thoroughly, using methods such as ion chromatography, scanning electron microscopy (SEM/EDX), or impedance spectroscopy. Even before deployment, we support you in assessing the moisture robustness of your modules – enabling early detection of critical weaknesses.

Building on this, we develop practical strategies to prevent dendrite formation in the long term. Effective prevention is always the result of close collaboration with your engineering team – tailored to your specific applications, processes, and environmental conditions.

Elektrical impedance specrtroscopy (EIS) Analyzing Opaque Encapsulations – Identifying Failure Mechanisms Faster with EIS

When high-performance electronics are fully encapsulated – for example through molding processes or in embedded designs – troubleshooting becomes a real challenge. Visual inspection and conventional methods often provide unreliable results or require destructive approaches. At the same time, the pressure increases to identify causes quickly and make well-informed decisions.

This is where Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) comes into play. It enables non-destructive evaluation, even in complex and opaque assemblies – directly in the installed state. Especially in cases of field failures or during process validation, EIS helps narrow down potential weak points quickly and reliably reconstruct failure correlations.

The biggest advantage: EIS saves time. What would otherwise require days of intensive troubleshooting can often be analyzed within just a few hours. This accelerates root cause identification, prevents unnecessary component replacements, and allows for fast and targeted action.

But EIS is more than just an analysis method. It also supports preventive evaluation, for example by comparing results before and after stress testing. This enables early detection of risks – long before a failure occurs.

What’s essential: the results are never viewed in isolation. They are integrated directly into the evaluation of your real-world application – and form the basis for concrete, practical improvements. Working closely with your team, we develop a solution that truly fits.