Novel Thermal-Electrical-Mechanical Model for Simulating Coupled Phenomena in High-Frequency Electronic Devices

Abstract

We present a fully coupled thermal-electrical-mechanical finite element based model to study material degradation behaviors of high-frequency electronic devices. The mechanisms of degradation and ultimately failure in wide bandgap (WBG) devices are very complex. Under operating conditions, the devices are usually subject to high electric fields, high stress/strain fields, high current densities, high temperatures and high thermal gradients. Moreover, these phenomena are coupled together. The presented finite element model is capable of computing stress, temperature, and electric fields based on an innovative finite element approach for the solution of non-linear coupled thermal-electrical-mechanical problems. The model can be applied to wide bandgap electronic devices to address major issues of performance and lifetime.