**Preface to "Challenges and New Trends in Power Electronic Devices Reliability"**

This book is a collection of papers regarding recent approaches to the evaluation of reliability in power electronic devices.

The book is addressed to all academic and industrial researchers involved in the evaluation of risk, reliability, and availability in power electronic converters for energy and transportation applications.

The authors involved in the book are as follows:

Alberto Belli, Universita Politecnica delle Marche, Italy `

Alessandro Ciocia, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Angela Amato, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Ariya Sangwongwanich, Aalborg University, Denmark

Baoming Li, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, China

Bassel Diban, University of Bologna, Italy

Carmelo Barbagallo, University of Catania, Italy

Chenyuan Wang, Wuhan University, China

Chuankun Wang, Wuhan University, China

Chun-Te Lee, Cheng-Shiu University, Taiwan

Elio Chiodo, University of Napoli Federico II, Italy

Federica Pinti, Universita Politecnica delle Marche, Italy `

Filippo Spertino, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Francesco Iannuzzo, Aalborg University, Denmark

Frede Blaabjerg, Aalborg University, Denmark

Gabriele Casali, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Gabriele Malgaroli, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Giacomo Scelba, University of Catania, Italy

Giovanni Mazzanti, University of Bologna, Italy

Giovanni Susinni, University of Catania, Italy

Giuseppe Scarcella, University of Catania, Italy

Han Yang, National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Jianwei Han, Institute of Astronomy and Space, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Jiufu Wei, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, China

Lie Li, Wuhan University, China

Lorenzo Palma, Universita Politecnica delle Marche, Italy `

Luigi Pio Di Noia, University of Napoli Federico II, Italy

Mario Cacciato, University of Catania, Italy

Massimo Gattari, iGuzzini Illuminazione S.p.A, Italy

Monika Sandelic, Aalborg University, Denmark

Paola Pierleoni, Universita Politecnica delle Marche, Italy `

Pasquale De Falco, University of Napoli Parthenope, Italy

Ping-Tsan Ho, Cheng-Shiu University, Taiwan

Qian Chen, National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Rui Chen, Institute of Astronomy and Space, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Santi Agatino Rizzo, University of Catania, Italy

Xiaoxin Wu, Wuhan University, China

Xuan Wang, National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Yanan Liang, National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Yigang He, Wuhan University, China

Zhenxiao Li, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, China

The guest editors Prof. Elio Chiodo, Dr. Pasquale De Falco, and Dr. Luigi Pio Di Noia would like to thank Ms. Stephanie Wang, Assistant Managing Editor of MDPI, for her precious collaboration in the success of this Special Issue.

> **Elio Chiodo, Pasquale De Falco, Luigi Pio Di Noia** *Editors*

## *Editorial* **Challenges and New Trends in Power Electronic Devices Reliability**

**Elio Chiodo 1,\*, Pasquale De Falco 2,\* and Luigi Pio Di Noia 3,\***


#### **1. Introduction**

Power electronic devices are expected to play an ever more fundamental role in unlocking the potentialities of smart power systems and in developing more electric ground and air transportation systems. The reliability of power electronic devices at different hierarchical levels (single component, single device, installation and system) becomes a crucial point in this framework, as failures may determine technical, economical and safety issues that should be carefully addressed at the design and maintenance stages.

Power electronic devices are subject to thermal, electrical and mechanical stresses, which can be assessed through consolidated, traditional techniques [1–4]. However, today these devices are expected to operate under challenging environmental conditions (e.g., high altitudes in more electric aircrafts or high temperatures on photovoltaic (PV) installations), undermining the effectiveness of traditional approaches that are typically based on historical failure data, fault rates or past observed scenarios. In fact, the rapid evolution of power electronic technologies and the ever more challenging operating frameworks pose severe limitations on the trustworthiness of available reliability data, as they are typically related to incoherent operating conditions [1–4].

#### **2. The Special Issue**

The *Electronics* Special Issue on Challenges and New Trends in Power Electronic Devices Reliability collected contributions on methodologies and approaches for the analysis of reliability in power electronic devices at different hierarchical levels, covering multiple fields of applications ranging from PVs to motor drives to LED lamps. The editorial resume of contributions is listed below:


**Citation:** Chiodo, E.; De Falco, P.; Di Noia, L.P. Challenges and New Trends in Power Electronic Devices Reliability. *Electronics* **2021**, *10*, 925. https://doi.org/10.3390/ electronics10080925

Received: 29 March 2021 Accepted: 7 April 2021 Published: 13 April 2021

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**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).


#### **3. Discussion and Future Contributions**

The potentialities unlocked by high-performance power electronic devices in smart power systems and more electric transportation are well recognized, although studies on the reliability of these components in challenging and severe conditions are far from being established. The integration of power electronics in different topologies and hybrid systems, together with the analysis of still unexplored fields such as full electric aircrafts and decentralized smart grids, will likely be the object of extensive research in the next decade. Future contributions on the reliability of power system components cannot neglect these aspects and should try to overcome the common bottleneck of the lack of field data in real-world challenging contexts.

**Author Contributions:** E.C., P.D.F. and L.P.D.N. were equally involved in the conceptualization of the Special Issue and in its entire editorial process. Writing—original draft preparation, P.D.F.; writing—review and editing, E.C., P.D.F. and L.P.D.N. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Acknowledgments:** E.C., P.D.F. and L.P.D.N. gratefully thank the authors for providing their contributions to the Special Issue and all the reviewers involved at any stage of the peer review processes. E.C., P.D.F. and L.P.D.N. also acknowledge the *Electronics* Editorial Office for maintaining the rigorous revision process and for ensuring the timely publication of the contents.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **References**


*Article*
