Silicon Carbide Multi-Chip Power Module for Traction Inverter Applications: Thermal Characterization and Modeling

Abstract

Semiconductor power modules are the key hardware components of a traction inverter. It drives motor speed and torque, managing the energy exchange from battery to motor and viceversa. The increasing demand for electric and hybrid vehicle requests high performance power modules. Power semiconductor devices based on wide band gap compound, like silicon carbide (SiC), have excellent electrical properties in terms of on-state resistance, stray inductance and performance at high commutation frequency. One of the most promising solution is silicon carbide MOSFET power module in which each switch is made by several different dies placed in parallel. Embedded direct cooling system and novel materials with high conductivity (e.g., active metal brazed substrates) can be considered to enhance thermal performance. A robust method is needed to characterize and to predict power module temperature behavior considering the importance of the thermal performance to improve reliability and to optimize module weight and dimensions. According to several parallel dies inside each switch, classic method based on temperature electric sensitive parameter (TSEP) shall be validated with direct measurement. In this framework, it has been reported the thermal characterization of a power module for a traction inverter based on eight silicon carbide MOSFETs for each switch. Both TSEP and infrared measurements have been employed. Thermal behavior has been numerically reproduced, creating a simplified equivalent network and developing a predictive model by finite element method (FEM).