Junction temperature

About: Junction temperature is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5058 publications have been published within this topic receiving 58643 citations.

Analysis of loss and junction temperature in power semiconductors of the matrix converter using simple simulation methods

Abstract: In this paper, simple simulation methods to calculate power semiconductor loss and instantaneous junction - case temperature difference in a power module of a matrix converter are proposed. The validity of the proposed simulation method for loss calculation is confirmed through experiment using a 22 kW test set-up of the matrix converter. By using the simulation method for temperature calculating, the influence of the output frequency on the junction - case temperature difference is investigated. Moreover, the effect of using a novel IGBT (RB-IGBT) that has reverse blocking capability is discussed. It is shown that the efficiency of a matrix converter using the RB-IGBT is higher by 1.3 points than that of a conventional PWM rectifier and inverter system.

The creation of compact thermal models of electronic components using model reduction

Abstract: This paper presents a new approach to compact thermal modeling. The paper shows how a parameterized reduced thermal model of an IC component can be created based on a parametric model reduction technique. By applying this technique, a large system of equations characterizing a discretized fully detailed numerical thermal model can be drastically reduced. The final product of a parameterized model reduction procedure is a set of small matrices presenting an abstract description of the component thermal behavior. The reduced system can be used to either synthesize a resistive network or formulate a set of connection equations to be connected to higher simulation levels. External boundary conditions are parameters of the reduced model and can be specified at simulation time. A parameterized reduced thermal model is found to have a number of advantages over an optimized resistor network model. The model can be generated quickly (one lower-upper (LU) decomposition is needed), high accuracies are obtained with a typical error of less than 0.1%. The technique also predicts temperature at all internal nodes of the original detailed model not just a single junction temperature. In this paper, the new technique is demonstrated through two examples of realistic IC components: a GaAs power amplifier and a generic multichip module ball grid array package. Both reduced models are connected to substrates in a number of different configurations. Thermal analysis performed in each case shows the importance of the geometric configuration of the connections on predictive capability.

A Physics-of-failure based Prognostic Method for Power Modules

Abstract: This paper describes a physics of failure (PoF) based prognostic method for power electronic modules. This method allows the reliability performance of power modules to be assessed in real time. A compact thermal model was firstly constructed to investigate the relationship between the power dissipation and the temperature in the power module. Such relationship can be used for fast calculation of junction temperature and the temperatures at each interface inside power modules. The predicted temperature profile was then analyzed using a rainflow counting method so that the number of thermal cycles with different temperature ranges can be calculated. A reduced order thermo-mechanical model was also constructed to enable a fast calculation of the accumulated plastic strain in the solder material under different loading conditions. The information of plastic strains was then used in the lifetime prediction model to predict the reliability of the solder interconnect under each regular loading condition. Based on the linear damage rule and the number of cycles calculated from the rain flow counting algorithm, the accumulated damage in the power module over the whole period of usage can be predicted. As a demonstration, this method has been applied to a typical IGBT half bridge module used in aircraft applications.