Tools for Broadband Electromagnetic Modeling of Power Semiconductor Packages and External Circuit Layouts

摘要

Advanced power electronics applications using fast switching power semiconductor devices imply the needs for electromagnetic (EM) tools for extracting the parasitics of two-and three-dimensional geometries (i.e. PCB layouts and packages) in an accurate and computationally efficient way. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of commercially available EM tools (ANSYS Q3D and HFSS) for broadband modeling of circuit and package layout parasitics. The coupling of layout EM models and device models are performed in a circuit simulation environment. It is demonstrated that an accurate modeling of layout parasitics in the range above 100 MHz is required in order to predict the fast switching performance of power semiconductor devices more precisely and this cannot be achieved by the low-frequency EM tools.