Thermal engineering of power electronic systems is a key to achieve high performance and reliability. With a clear focus on power modules the tutorial addresses the thermal design and validation of power electronic components exemplified by a 100 kW IGBT converter equipped with additional thermal sensors. The attendees should have basic knowledge on power semiconductor devices and power electronics systems.

Part 1: After a review of the basic theory of heat transfer, the calculation of losses in a voltage source inverter will be explained. For selected stationary operating conditions, the expected device temperatures of the sample converter will be calculated from datasheet values. Application of online tools to facilitate this process will be demonstrated. Participants can choose between FEM simulations and equivalent thermal network calculation with LTspice™ to simulate these operating conditions. The results are compared to thermal measurements using thermocouples and an IR camera.
Furthermore, a 3rd practical training group will deal with the comparison of a simulated power board with measurement and calibrate afterwards the simulation model.

Part 2: Following a brief summary of the results of the first part, failure mechanisms, both at semiconductor and package levels will be introduced. After that, thermo-/damage-sensitive parameters will be discussed, together with theoretical background of thermal impedance measurement. A practical experiment about measurement of thermal impedance with standard laboratory equipment will end the first day. The second day will start from concrete design for reliability concepts, then aim straight at lifetime estimation, based on both power cycling and mission-profile approaches. Advanced electro-thermal and thermo-mechanical simulation will follow, and an overview about cooling systems will conclude the 2-day tutorial.

All presentations and discussions will be in English.