Numerical analysis tool for transient skin effect problems

A new numerical analysis tool for the investigation of the three-dimensional transient electromagnetic behavior of interconnect structures in high power modules is presented. The simulator uses the finite element method to receive a continuous field description of electric and magnetic fields caused by bus bars under fast operating conditions and allows for a detailed investigation of distributed parasitic effects. Time dependent current crowding, time dependent inductances, overvoltage peaks or current turn-on delays can be determined. The finite element based concept permits to consider both voltage- and current-driven problems and is well suited to analyze complex plate structures, as no a priori decomposition of any conductor into partial elements is needed. The interconnect analysis tool was developed by the help of the object-oriented C++ library Diffpack, a software development framework for the solution of partial differential equations. The mixed finite element method is applied to solve the skin effect problem by a combination of a vector and a scalar potential. Edge finite elements are used to discretize the vector quantity. Re-using well-tested and efficient code of the library allows analyzing complex three-dimensional bus bar arrangements.