Electro thermal modeling of the power diode using Pspice

In this paper, an improved electro thermal model of power diode was developed. The main local physical effects were taken into consideration. The suggested model is able to address the electrical and thermal effects. The model was confirmed through a comparison with other models having close characteristics for different circuits (AC-DC converter, turn-on and turn-off) and different temperatures. The diode was implemented in the Pspice circuit simulation platform using Pspice standard components and analog behavior modeling (ABM) blocks. The diode switching performance was investigated under influence of different circuit elements (such as stray inductance, gate resistance and temperature) in order to study and estimate the on-state and switching losses pre-requisite for the design of various converter and inverter topologies. The comparison shows that these models are simple, tunable with the electric circuit software simulator. They are more capable of predicting the main circuit parameters needed for power electronic design. The transient thermal responses were demonstrated for the single pulse and repeat modes. The achieved results show that our model is suitable for full electro thermal simulations of power electronic circuits.