Electro-thermal analysis for automotive high power MOSFETs

Power dissipated within a semiconductor package must be properly extracted in order to guarantee safe and reliable operation in an automotive high power application. This work analyzes the transient thermal characteristics of two surface mount MOSFET packages types, TOLL and PQFN 5×6 for various heat sinking configurations. A novel methodology is then demonstrated for comparing the relative thermal response of these two packages under the application of transient power. Measurement results are provided to validate simulation results and concluded with electro-thermal simulations that predict the device's thermal response for a typical automotive motor drive application. The process highlighted here allows engineers to understand the thermal design tradeoffs associated with such devices with various thermal environments and facilitate comparison and prediction of their thermal response in performance critical applications.