Intelligent Methodology for Efficient Power Module Design by means of SPICE based Virtual Prototyping

Abstract:
The key challenge with power module design is to optimize trade-offs between correlated parameters (electrical and thermo-mechanical). To overcome this challenge and accelerate the design process, virtual prototyping in LTspice is adopted, and different electrical parameters are investigated in detail to reproduce the realistic prototype behaviour derived from double pulse test (DPT) under ambient temperature. By understanding the influence of module-level parameters in the simulation circuit, assessment of an early prototype is achievable to define the next step with temperature-dependent switching parameters (ton, toff, trr, Eon, Eoff, Err - reverse recovery loss, dV/dt - slope of drain-to-source voltage over time at turn-off transient, dI/dt - slope of drain current over time at turn-on transient) considering potential risks.