Evaluation of Failure Trends on a PID-Controlled Synchronous Buck Converter based Battery Charging Controller

The future trends in renewable energy generation are to select appropriate components and topology for power electronics converters with optimized costs and power density while satisfying the reliability target. This paper evaluates the reliability of a PID-controlled synchronous buck converter-based (SBC) battery charging controller for solar-powered lighting system in a fishing trawler and figure out most failure prone components. This reliability prediction has been developed according to MIL-HDBK-217F(N1/2) handbook models along with performance degradation analysis of individual components. Simulation results have demonstrated that that there are two general failure effects of components in the overall circuit, with the MOSFETs being the most failure prone device for a wide range of temperature; however, the overall system can expect an average operational lifetime of between 5 to 11 years before failing, under worst case scenario.