In power electronics domain, the modern components are pushed to the maximum of their capability in order to minimize the weight and the compactness of the devices dedicated to the energy management. In addition, although the current components undergo important constraints (temperature cycling, short circuits and/or avalanche conditions,…), requirements for reliability are expressed with force in order to guarantee the safety of the systems and their users.

An optimized and competitive design has to take benefit of realistic and powerful models. The modeling chosen for a long time by ISGE group is based on fine analysis of physical phenomena which impact the operation of the power switches (MOS, IGBT, diodes…). This type of modeling aims at taking into account realistically the interactions between the various phenomena in order to consider all the operating processes. Thus, electrical characteristics (waveforms of current and voltage) can be modeled according to the temperature of the active zones in the chips. In addition, the temperature, which depends simultaneously on the power dissipation and on the environment (case, boundary conditions) is modeled by considering the 3D effects.