A thermal model for insulated gate bipolar transistor module

A thermal resistor-capacitor (RC) model is introduced for the power insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules used in a three-phase inverter. The parameters of the model are extracted from the experimental data for the transient thermal impedance from-junction-to-case Z/sub jc/ and case-to-ambient Z/sub ca/. The accuracy of the RC model is verified by comparing its predictions with those resulting from the three-dimensional finite element method simulation. The parameter extraction algorithm is easy to adapt to other types of power modules in an industrial application environment.