Distributed and coupled 2D electro-thermal model of power semiconductor devices

The development of power electronics in the field of transportations (automotive, aeronautics) requires the use of power semiconductor devices providing protection and diagnostic functions. In the case of series protections power semiconductor devices which provide protection may operate in shortcircuit and act as a current limiting device. This mode of operations is very constraining due to the large dissipation of power. In these particular conditions of operation, electro-thermal models of power semiconductor devices are of key importance in order to optimize their thermal design and increase their reliability. The development of such an electro-thermal model for power MOSFET transistors based on the coupling between two computation softwares (Matlab and Cast3M) is described in this paper. The 2D electro-thermal model is able to predict (i) the temperature distribution on chip surface well as in the volume under short-circuit operations, (ii) the effect of the temperature on the distribution of the current flowing within the die and (iii) the effects of the ageing of the metallization layer on the current density and the temperature. In this paper, the electrical and thermal models are described as well as the implemented coupling scheme.