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

• 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
• ISSN: 0026-2714; 1872-941X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.microrel.2013.07.083

•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.