The Distributed Heat Source Modeling Method for the Finite Element Simulation of IGBTs

The determination of the heat source has a great influence on the results of the thermal simulation in the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) module. Different from the widely used uniform heat source model, a distributed heat source model consisting of a body heat source and two boundary heat sources is proposed in this article, which is based on the ON-state model of the IGBT module. Meanwhile, a novel parameter extraction method is developed only by using I-V characteristics. And the accuracy of the extraction method is verified by comparing the calculated package resistance with the measured package resistance. Finally, the proposed distributed heat source and the traditional uniform heat source under different situations are compared in thermal simulation. The results show that the proposed model can improve the accuracy of thermal simulation results, especially the transient results in a short time, and the model parameters can be easily extracted by the I-V characteristics from the product datasheet, which will help the model be more easily applied in practical applications.