Thermal Analysis Approach for Predicting Power Device Lifetime

The purpose of this paper is to predict the device lifetime under a power cycling test by a simulation method that is based on a distributed self-heating SPICE model. Correlation between numeric extrapolation and experimental data is done by considering the Repetitive Avalanche test, a particular active temperature cycling that evaluates the ruggedness of a power device. The considered failure mechanism is due to front metal aging that produces contact resistance degradation. This phenomenon is strongly dependent on temperature, and by the proposed simulation tool, validated with experimental data, it is possible to evaluate the accurate temperature map and, consequently, predict the lifetime.