In recent  years, the automotive and aerospace industries  have brought stringent reliability constraints on power  electronic systems  because  of  safety  requirements.  The  industrial and  energy  sectors  are  also following  the  same  trend,  and  more and  more  efforts  are  being  devoted  to  improving  power  electronic systems  to account  for reliability with cost-effective and sustainable solutions. A better  understanding of the reliability of power electronic components, converters, and systems will alleviate the challenges posed in  both  reliability-critical  applications  and  cost-sensitive  applications.    

The  paradigm  shift  in  reliability research  in  power  electronics  is  going  on  in  terms  of  the design  methodologies,  reliability testing concepts,   and   robustness   validation   approaches. Research   on   active   switching   devices,   passive components,  and interconnections  is  of  interest  to  have  a  better  understanding  on  the  component  level reliability physics. Furthermore, with the consideration of reliability as performance, the existing or  new power converter topologies, system architectures, and control schemes are to be studied in  multi-physics domains. The  fault-tolerant control and prognostic health  management are also interesting research areas to  provide  additional  opportunities  to  ensure  the  reliable  field  operation  of  power  electronic systems.  This  special  session  will  present  the  state-of-the-art  research  outcomes  in  the  area  of  power  electronics reliability and relevant applications.