Real-Time Virtual Prototypes for Power Electronics

When designing power electronic systems, accurate and efficient modelling is important to ensure optimal performance and reducing time to market. In a power electronic simulation, semiconductor devices are usually modelled as simplified, ideal circuit representations in order to reduce computational complexity and manufacturers release device models for simulation purposes in common circuit simulation formats such as SPICE. However, these models provide little information about what is actually happening inside the package - for example temperature or current distributions, or consider how the package interacts with the wider system. These insights require models to have a 3D geometrical component which cannot be captured by circuit models. This paper introduces the Real-Time Virtual Prototypes (RTVP) concept, the principle is that of a universal component model exchange format that can capture geometry-based behaviour, in addition to circuit behaviour. The concept extends an existing model exchange standard, the Functional Mock-up Unit (FMU) to incorporate SPICE-like circuit models and geometrical models. This allows complex models to be imported into commercial simulation tools such as Simulink. Reduced-Order Modelling methods are used to maintain simulation efficiency. A co-simulation tool is proposed that allows the models to stream 3D visualisations of their internal state, in real-time, as the simulation progresses. This work demonstrates an initial proof-of-concept, demonstrating the model generation process, integration with the FMU model format, and simulation in Simulink.