Electro-thermal modeling to quantify the electrothermal impact of the solder joint delamination on power device assemblies

This paper presents the use of 3D transient electrothermal modeling methodology to investigate the effects of delamination on power MOSFET with SnPb soldering when a charge short-circuit occurs. The results given by electro-thermal simulations allow the study of phenomena difficult to capture experimentally, like focalization of the temperature and current densities due to the structure topology and resistivity variation. The use of sintered silver instead of SnPb could reduce the delamination extension, but it gives also improvements in terms of thermal and electrical resistivities. These latest improvements are quantified in this paper.