Electro-thermal analysis of IGBT module from 3D CAD model

An integrated simulation environment for multi-physics simulation of IGBT modules was developed. A coupled electro-thermal analysis is described in this paper. Starting from a detailed 3D CAD model of the module and the schematic of an application circuit utilizing the module, both in industry-standard file formats, the simulation environment extracts the electrical connection, electrical parasitics, as well as the thermal characteristics of all components in the module. Electro-thermal co-simulation is performed, with joule-heating of semiconductor devices and metal conductors considered, under realistic stimuli and load conditions, to provide evolution of the temperature field inside the IGBT module. This simulation platform aims to identify thermal hot-spot and to improve reliability of IGBT modules.