A system and method for prolonging and equalizing the effective life of a plurality of transistors operating in parallel. The temperature of each transistor is measured and compared with the average temperature of the transistor system. A temperature difference is determined between the average temperature of the transistors and the measured temperature of each of the transistors. The gate resistance and the gate emitter resistance of each transistor is varied based on the temperature differences to control the measured temperature of each transistors by controlling current through each transistor thereby thermally balancing the transistors.