Peaks in temperature wstribution over the area of operating power semiconductor junctions related to the surface leakage current

Thermal Analysis of Power Semiconductor Device in Steady-State Conditions

“…In [3], it is shown that the Lorentz temperature distribution allows for the estimation of the temperature within a substrate using some parameters of a power electronic device and a 3D temperature distribution of the substrate. According to [4], junction temperature distribution is not uniform, the heat transfer to the heatsink being significantly higher on the junction periphery than the heat eliminated from the junction bulk. Junction temperature control solutions for power semiconductor devices are usually depend on a specific task or profile, and the controller has to be adjusted to assure the desired performances [5].…”

Semiconductor pn junction failure at operation near or in the breakdown region of the reverse I-V characteristic

“…Nevertheless above 1000-1200 V, deviation from approximately a linear dependence of I R is visible as in the case of the (R) diode. Further investigation, [7], indicates that such behaviour may be attributed to the surface component I RS which above 1000 -1200 V becomes comparable and even higher than the bulk component I RB . Attempts of operation of the (F) diode for short time at a current level of 10 mA leads to similar junction failure behaviour as described above for the similar (R) diode.…”

“…The component I RAS at high I RA level, is significant lower than the bulk component, I RAB , uniformly distributed over the junction area. Nonetheless, at lower I RA level, the two components I RAS and I RAB become comparable and overheating at the junction periphery is possible, [7], because the power dissipation corresponding to I RAS is concentrated in a much smaller volume than I RAB. The component I RAS of the avalanche current may be even more non-uniformly distributed on the junction perimeter than the component I RS of the saturation current .…”