Modeling Approach for Design Selection and Reliability Analysis of SiC Power Modules

This paper presents a 3D electro-thermo-mechanical modeling approach developed for analysis of reliability aspects of different Silicon Carbide power MOSFET packages. The proposed approach includes a new distributed model of conduction losses within a power MOSFET die, and hence, enables more accurate electro-thermal simulations of parallel SiC power MOSFETs. In a consecutive thermo-mechanical simulation step, the plastic damage indicators are extracted from the calculated stress-strain fields within the package. This allows a comparative study between different packaging technologies in terms of wear-out failures. Furthermore, the proposed modeling platform can provide a deeper insight into failure modes of SiC power MOSFET packages during accelerated power cycling testing. The modeling approach is presented on an example of a 3D layout of a multi-chip power module.