【Introduction】Selecting the appropriate power semiconductor device is the core of power circuit design. It is necessary to calculate the loss of the device, the system temperature, and sometimes the life of the device. This is a systematic project, which generally requires a professional team and a variety of simulation software to implement. This is difficult for most design teams to implement. For this reason, the device-based loss and temperature calculation tool IPOSIM provided by Infineon 25 years ago has been developed to this day. Cloud simulation for PLECS.

Birth of IPOSIM

IPOSIM—IGBT Power Simulation for eupec IGBT was born in the late 1990s. It is a calculation book for IGBT and freewheeling diode loss and thermal simulation based on Excel Sheet. In the early days, it only supported more than 100 models of NPT type second Generation IGBT.

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This simple and easy-to-use “simulation” ends the history of engineers needing to calculate by hand, and frees engineers from tedious and repetitive calculations.Many companies have since moved away from the era when thermal design relies on gross estimation, but this spreadsheet is positioned as a product selection tool

It is assumed that the current flowing through the device is sinusoidal and a linear approximation is made.

The IPOSIM Excel version has undergone 6 major revisions, and when it retired from the stage of history, it has been very powerful. It can compare the loss, junction temperature, case temperature, ripple of multiple devices, and give the maximum output RMS current capability. It is even possible to calculate varying losses and temperatures for varying load conditions, but in the final analysis it is still based on device calculations.

Enable cloud simulation

The online version of IPOSIM is an important turning point for Infineon’s digital simulation platform. In the 2010s, Infineon began to use Transim Technology, an online design solution provider in the semiconductor industry, to launch the IPOSIM online design simulation tool. The background simulation software is Portunus. This simulation platform is free of installation and has a friendly GUI user interface. It can help you quickly get results step by step. It is much more powerful than the IPOSIM Excel version. It is a system-based simulation and can support multiple topologies and 4 types of DC/AC modulations. Strategy, the accuracy is also higher than formula calculation.

A new era for IPOSIM

In 2018, Infineon started to use PLECS as the web version of the IPOSIM background simulation platform. The advantage of this is to improve the simulation performance. We open up device PLECS models for our customers, so engineers can use circuit templates and thermal/electrical models for simulation both online and offline.

Today’s IPOSIM supports 19 different power circuit topologies, including ANPC in tri-level, and the device library includes IGBT/SiC modules, single transistors, power diodes and thyristors, among others.

The modulation method of the system is very rich. The three-phase and two-level modulation methods include 9 modulation methods such as sinusoidal modulation and six space vector methods. The load can be selected from inductive load and capacitive load. The output frequency is as low as 0.1Hz.

Simulations include static operating conditions, cyclic loading, and Module device lifetime estimates.

Largest and Smallest IGBTs:

In the device library of IPOSIM, there are single tubes as small as 1A 600V SOT-223 package, which is the smallest IGBT in the industry, as large as 750A 6500V IGBT module, the largest IGBT module in the industry, and the size difference of the heat dissipation surface is more than 1200 times. In the actual system The IGBT loss is more than 10,000 times worse.

We can do loss and thermal simulations under different topologies and modulation strategies through IPOSIM. We also open the PLECS model for simulation, which can be downloaded by registering with myinfineon.