Study of the Solder Characteristics of IGBT Modules Based on Thermal–Mechanical Coupling Simulation

Abstract

The insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) represents a crucial component within the domain of power semiconductor devices, which finds ubiquitous employment across a range of critical domains, including new energy vehicles, smart grid systems, rail transit, aerospace, etc. The main characteristics of its operating environment are high voltage, large current, and high power density, which can easily cause issues, such as thermal stress, thermal fatigue, and mechanical stress. Therefore, the reliability of IGBT module packaging has become a critical research topic. This study focuses on the damage of power device solder layers and applies heat transfer theory. Three typical solders for welding IGBTs (92.5Pb5Sn2.5Ag, Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu (SAC305), and nano-silver solder paste) are analyzed using JMatPro software to simulate their characteristics. First, a finite element analysis method is used to simulate the entire IGBT module with ANSYS Workbench platform. The study compares the impact of three types of solders on the overall heat transfer of the IGBT module under normal operation and welding layer damage conditions. The characteristics are analyzed based on changes in the junction temperature, heat flow path, and the law of thermal stress and deformation. The findings indicated that under steady-state working conditions, adjacent chips in a multi-chip IGBT module had significant thermal coupling, with a maximum temperature difference between chip junctions reaching up to 13 °C, and a phenomenon of heat concentration emerged. The three types of solders could change the thermal conductivity and heat transfer direction of the IGBT module to varying degrees, resulting in a temperature change of 3–6 °C. Under conditions of solder layer damage, the junction temperature increased linearly with the severity of the damage. In the 92.5Pb5Sn2.5Ag and Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu (SAC305) solders, the presence of intermetallic compounds (IMCs) led to more stress concentration points in the solder layer, with the maximum stress reaching 7.14661 × 107 MPa and concentrated at the edge of the solder layer. The nano-silver solder layer had the best thermal conductivity, and the maximum thermal deformation under the same conditions was only 1.9092 × 10−5 m.