A novel electro-thermal simulation approach to inverter power modules for electric vehicle

This paper presents a fast method for predicting inverter performance and evaluating power devices in electric vehicle drives during longtime driving cycles. The reliability of insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) is directly influenced by temperature and temperature variation cycles. Based on ANSYS SIMPLORER, a novel method of decoupling the device and inverter simulation is proposed to maintain high accuracy of power losses and device temperatures, and to achieve faster than real time inverter simulation. An illustration is given for a battery electric vehicle for SFTP-SC03 driving cycle. Device models are built for silicon IGBTs and PIN diodes. The simulation framework offers the potential to rapidly improve the inverter design process, and to evaluate device selection quickly.