Novel simulation approach for transient analysis and reliable thermal management of power devices

This paper deals with a novel simulation approach, which enables to take into consideration at the same time local and global effects that are not easily simulated by the traditional techniques based on finite elements. The proposed method combines physics-based compact models of semiconductor devices with a distributed three-dimensional description of the thermal problem within a unified simulation environment. The performance of the new approach is demonstrated in the case of the simulation of thermal instabilities, which undermines the reliability of high power IGBTs.