Two dimensional simulation of power devices with circuit boundary conditions

The use of Dirichlet boundary conditions at semiconductor contacts is not sufficient to describe many practical device situations. Two particular areas of interest that it precludes are the transient simulation of power devices and the calculation of the full I/V characteristics of an IGBT (including latchup), both of which require the inclusion of circuit and/or current boundary conditions. This paper describes and compares two methods that have been used to simulate these more difficult situations, namely a novel coupled approach that includes current Dow within a contact and a decoupled method.