Self-heating in a coupled thermo-electric circuit-device model

摘要

The self-heating of a coupled thermo-electric circuit-semiconductor system is modeled and numerically simulated. The system consists of semiconductor devices, an electric network with resistors, capacitors, inductors, and voltage sources, and a thermal network. The flow of the charge carriers is described by the energy-transport equations coupled to a heat equation for the lattice temperature. The electric circuit is modeled by the network equations from modified nodal analysis coupled to a thermal network describing the evolution of the temperatures in the lumped and distributed circuit elements. The three subsystems are coupled through thermo-electric, electric circuit-device, and thermal network-device interface conditions. The resulting system of nonlinear partial differential-algebraic equations is discretized in time by the 2-stage backward difference formula and in space by a mixed finite-element method. Numerical simulations of a one-dimensional ballistic diode and a frequency multiplier circuit containing a pn-junction diode illustrate the heating of the semiconductor device and circuit resistors.