IGBT junction and coolant temperature estimation by thermal model

Abstract

The capability of IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) to handle heat is one of its main limitations of high power application. This paper aims to study an IGBT thermal model under flow cooling condition and estimate the IGBT module junction and coolant temperature. Firstly, this paper studies the IGBT module internal sandwich structure and calculates the thermal resistance and thermal capacitor for each layer using a 1D physical model. Then a Cauer electric model is built for the IGBT module to evaluate the thermal constant time of the model. The liquid cooling method is applied in this project for fast cooling and the thermal parameters are studied and measured since this cooling method involves both solid and liquid. In order to estimate the junction temperature, the sensing temperature from NTC (Negative temperature coefficient) resistor inside the module is used as reference temperature. The equivalent thermal models, also named Foster model, from both junction to NTC and NTC to coolant are built, respectively. With these thermal models, the junction and coolant temperature estimation methods are derived. For the purpose of making the estimation accurate, the thermal coupling effect is carefully studied. Finally, the thermal model is verified by inverter application with current steps sweeping; the estimated temperature is compared with thermal camera measurement result which demonstrates good accuracy of the thermal model. The estimated coolant temperature is also well matched with thermocouple measurement result.