The Prius That Shook.. - VFAQ Prius Site

electronic parts building at Hirose Plant in the EV testing
facility with large power source devices and load devices.
Adjustments and modifications were done in the daytime,
and tests were done at night. They found that a little
increase in power caused a sudden explosion, and a moment of
light followed by darkness. Electric power in the building
would momentarily drop and cause the fluorescent lights
to turn off.
Tests were run every day until midnight. Every time
they thought that they finally had the problem figured out,
the module would break and explode like a firework, with
light bright enough for a photo shoot. For a while, every
staff member was dumbfounded as similar failures occurred
more than ten times in a row.
When they took the module apart, they found the
inside to be black with soot. The aluminum wires
connecting to the chip and the electrodes were melted and
splattered everywhere. The loud noise seemed to be
coming from the evaporation of aluminum.
"Gosh, this is hopeless." Yasuho and Baba were frustrated
as the IGBT continued to blow up over and over again.
Although the module was supposed to be ready for the
official prototype in the fall, it was constantly breaking and
far from ready. When a decent module was finally installed
in the prototype, it was already a month late.
As more modules broke, the manufacturing group
became busier. In the beginning the group needed a
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