Mixed-mode simulations for power system optimization

The next generation of power semiconductor devices will be designed and optimized at the application level. To develop an optimum power semiconductor device, there is a critical need to perform careful tradeoff among performance and reliability parameters of devices and circuits. Application specific device optimization renders necessary the development of a “mixed-mode” circuit simulation capability in which semiconductor carrier dynamics are studied and optimized in an actual circuit application environment. In this paper, safe operating area of IGBTs is studied using technology CAD (TCAD) tools beginning with process and device simulation and culminating in circuit-level switching simulations wherein the semiconductor equations are solved consistently with the circuit equations