Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems and Device Technology IISB
Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems and Device Technology IISB

Multiphysics Simulation for Power Electronics

Simulation subjects

  • Electrical, thermal, and mechanical simulation on device, module, and system level
  • Electronic cooling design, thermal management, lifetime prediction
  • Coupled and multiphysics simulations
  • Extraction of electric parasitics and circuit simulation
  • Simulation – design – optimization – verification by measurement
  • Digital Twin

Electrical simulation

  • Electric current, potential and field strength distribution analysis
  • Identification of critical areas of the insulation due to high field strengths
  • Electromagnetic simulation

Thermal simulation

  • Fundamental assessment of the temperature distribution
  • Steady-state and transient temperature behavior
  • Investigation of the temperature distribution of operating electronics

Mechanical simulation

  • Computation of the deformation due to temperature loads of the fabrication process or during operation
  • Illustration of the internal stress of the attached materials in a stacked arrangement

Parasitic extraction in electronic packages

  • 3D and 2D extraction of parasitics in electronic packaging
  • Computation of the capacitance, conductance, inductance and resistance matrices
  • Generation of a netlist by extracted LCR parameters of any design (e.g., SML or SPICE format)
  • Calculation of the inductance and capacitance values of PCB or standard power module designs as well as of sensors and other similar applications

Circuit simulation

  • Circuit simulation of power modules, e.g. half-bridge or commutation cells
  • Circuits based on designed layouts, the extracted parasitics serve as input parameters
  • Realistic answers of the system to applied voltage and current wave forms

Electric and electromagnetic simulation

  • Static and transient simulations (2D and 3D)
  • Electric field strength distribution
  • Identification of critical areas on the modules due to enhancement of the electric field strength
  • Parametric studies of dependencies with respect to the field distribution
  • Electromagnetic losses in high frequency applications
    Wide parameter studies of power coupling through coils
  • Illustration of the magnetic field distribution

Electronics cooling design

  • Computational fluid dynamics (multi-fluid)
  • Radiation and Joule heating
  • Steady state and transient simulation
  • Detailed chip, board, and system level within one simulation
  • Complex geometries and 3D component assemblies

Multiphysics simulation

  • Multiphysics coupling of simulation
  • Coupled structures via electromagnetic fields
            - Coupling of coils – contactless energy transfer
            - Inductive heating of conductive components
  • Coupling of simulation software – FEM calculations linked with circuit simulation

Lifetime modelling and prediction

  • Mission profiles and load cycles/ scenarios - beyond rainflow
  • Material parameterization and extraction; process/history aware strain fields
  • Towards Digital Twin for temperature shock and power cycling; Model validation
DCB structure cooling down to ambient temperature after fabrication at higher temperature (structure)
© Fraunhofer IISB
DCB structure cooling down to ambient temperature after fabrication at higher temperature (structure)
Deformation of DCB structure due to joining the temperature of substrate and baseplate
© Fraunhofer IISB
Deformation of DCB structure due to joining the temperature of substrate and baseplate
Resulting stress distribution of the arrangement at room temperature
© Fraunhofer IISB
Resulting stress distribution of the arrangement at room temperature

Simulation – design – optimization – verification

  • Power module design based on simulation
  • Optimization and analysis of structures and arrangements via simulation
  • Verification of test structures by various in-house measurement possibilities, e.g. static and lock-in thermography, indirect thermal impedance and resistance (Rth, Zth/ different coolants, flow rates, temperatures), etc.
  • Material characterization for realistic material properties as input for simulations (for example nano-indentation, tensile tests at different temperatures)

Software used in simulation

  • Always up-to-date versions of simulation software for multiphysics and electromagnetic simulation (e.g., ANSYS Emag, Maxwell, Q3D, Fluent)
 

© Fraunhofer IISB

Simulation For Power Electronics

download as pdf
 

© Fraunhofer IISB

Simulation Of Electric Parasitics And Fields In Power Electronics

download as pdf