Numerical simulation of thermal runaway phenomena in silicon semiconductor devices

Abstract

Abstract A mathematical model for heat production due to thermal excitation of conductive electrons and positive holes in a semiconductor pn junction is derived and discussed. The model is applied to simulate the thermal runaway phenomena in power electronics semiconductor devices. Our discussion focuses especially on the modeling of unexpected huge currents due to an excessive temperature increase. Calculated dynamics of temperature distributions of a silicon wafer while cooling performance decreases proved it is possible for a silicon wafer to be heated over its melting point in a few milliseconds. Our results indicate that if a local hot spot arises in a wafer, the thermal intrinsic excitation carries an increased diffusion current of minor carriers and a recombination current in the depletion layer of a pn junction. Also it appears to be important that cooling performance should be uniform on the wafer to avoid the growth of hot spots and thermal‐runaway itself. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 31(6): 438–455, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.10044