Date of Graduation

12-2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Electrical Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Mantooth, H. Alan

Committee Member

Brown, Randy L.

Second Committee Member

Balda, Juan C.

Keywords

Applied sciences; Electrical parasitics; Multi-chip power module; Thermal modeling

Abstract

This thesis presents thermal and electrical parasitic modeling approaches for layout synthesis of Multi-Chip Power Modules (MCPMs). MCPMs integrate power semiconductor devices and drive electronics into a single package. As the switching frequency of power devices increases, the size of the passive components are greatly reduced leading to gains in efficiency and cost reduction. In order to increase switching frequency, electrical parasitics in MCPMs need to be reduced through tighter electronic integrations and smaller packages. As package size is decreased, temperature increases due to less heat dissipation capability. Thus, it is crucial to consider both thermal and electrical parasitics in order to avoid premature device failure. Traditionally, the evaluation of the temperature and electrical parasitics of an MCPM requires the layout to be changed iteratively by hand and verified via finite element analysis (FEA) tools. The novel thermal and electrical parasitics models developed in this thesis predict temperature and electrical parasitics of an MCPM according to varied layouts. Multi-Objective optimization methods are applied to the models to find optimal layouts and tradeoffs of MCPM layouts.

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