Analysis of the UIS behavior of power devices by means of SPICE-based electrothermal simulations

•Electrothermal 3-D simulations of UIS tests of IGBTs are performed in PSPICE.•The approach relies on a circuit representation of both the electrical and the thermal problems.•The correlation between the shape of the avalanche curve and the UIS current distribution is analyzed.•The simulation requir...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Microelectronics and reliability 2013-09, Vol.53 (9-11), p.1713-1718
Main Authors: d’Alessandro, Vincenzo, Magnani, Alessandro, Riccio, Michele, Iwahashi, Yohei, Breglio, Giovanni, Rinaldi, Niccolò, Irace, Andrea
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Circuits
Computer simulation
Devices
Discharge
Electrical engineering. Electrical power engineering
Electronic equipment and fabrication. Passive components, printed wiring boards, connectics
Electronics
Exact sciences and technology
Other multijunction devices. Power transistors. Thyristors
Power electronics, power supplies
Representations
Ruggedness
Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices
Strategy
Three dimensional
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Summary:•Electrothermal 3-D simulations of UIS tests of IGBTs are performed in PSPICE.•The approach relies on a circuit representation of both the electrical and the thermal problems.•The correlation between the shape of the avalanche curve and the UIS current distribution is analyzed.•The simulation requires only 2minutes on a desktop PC.•Any dynamic behaviors of multicellular/multifinger power devices can be effectively investigated. This paper presents an accurate, yet computationally effective, 3-D simulation strategy devised for the UIS analysis of multicellular power transistors, which accounts for electrothermal effects and is based on a circuit representation of the whole device under test. The approach is exploited to examine the correlation between the shape of the avalanche curve of IGBTs and the physical mechanisms occurring during UIS discharging. In particular, an in-depth investigation is performed on a current hopping phenomenon that – although not usually destructive – entails a reduction in both ruggedness and reliability of the device.
ISSN:0026-2714
1872-941X
DOI:10.1016/j.microrel.2013.07.083