FEM Thermal Modeling and Improvement for High Power IGBT Modules Used in Wind Turbine Systems

Thermal management of high power IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) modules is crucial to ensure the reliable operation of power electronic systems especially in wind power applications. The important stage in thermal management of power modules is temperature estimation inside the IGBT modules. Generally, thermal information on datasheet is used to estimate transistor and diode chip temperatures, but this information is based on average and rough temperature measurements. In addition this information does not consider thermal coupling impact between the chips and the impact of different cooling conditions on thermal behavior of power module. In this paper, a detailed 3D thermal network of high power module is presented based on FEM (Finite Element Method) simulation. The thermal coupling impact between chips will be studied and the transient thermal impedances will be examined under different cooling conditions. Finally, the extracted thermal network will be validated with a circuit simulator for a fast temperature estimation with a given loss profile.