| An electrothermal model for a power electronic module is presented. The model is developed by representing the internal thermal behavior of the module as a RC network using an electrical circuit equivalent for the thermal heat conduction equation in one dimension. The physical characteristics of the module, like thermal properties of its constituents and all its dimensions, are used to subdivide its structure into a finite number of thermal components or nodes. To validate the model, two experiments were made: a train of high-power pulses was applied to obtain a fast-transient response of the innermost layers close to the semiconductor junctions, and a constant low-power level was applied to obtain a slow-transient response of different points located throughout the module plus its heat dissipation elements. Simulations performed with the module model showed an acceptable agreement with the acquired experimental measurements. |
