Online Failure Prediction of the Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitor

The aim of this research is to present a simple online condition monitoring system to predict failure of the aluminum electrolytic capacitors used in the output LC filter of the switched mode DCDC buck converters. Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR) is the best indicator of the failure of the aluminium electrolytic capacitors. The main idea of the proposed method is to monitor the ESR value and predict the failure of the aluminum electrolytic capacitor under operation in switched mode DCDC buck converter. The proposed method provides a easy and direct way of online failure prediction of the aluminum electrolytic capacitor using a portable device with minimal hardware requirements.