PSpice-COMSOL-Based 3-D Electrothermal–Mechanical Modeling of IGBT Power Module

Abstract

The behavior of the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) module results in the electric field, temperature field, and stress field, and there are strong coupling effects among its electrical, temperature, and mechanical characteristics. Meanwhile, the packaging failure of IGBT module is also the interaction results of multi-physical fields coupling. In this article, a multi-physical fields transient modeling method based on PSpice and COMSOL is proposed. This method synthesizes the advantages of the physical model and the finite-element model. According to the time constants of different physical fields, continuous simulation analysis is carried out on different timescales. Through flexible multispeed simulation strategy, the dynamic characteristics of IGBT devices at different timescales can be accurately characterized. First, the electric-thermal–mechanical coupling mechanism of IGBT is described. Then, the electrical model and thermomechanical coupling model of IGBT are constructed in PSpice and COMSOL, respectively, and the multi-physical fields simulation in multi-timescale is realized through the control file of MATLAB script. The proposed modeling approach is verified by a short-circuit test of Starpower 1200-V/50-A IGBT module. Finally, an example of multi-time-scale simulation analysis under short-circuit condition is given, and the reasons for module failure under multi-field coupling effect are studied.