Electrothermal couplings in power components
Power semiconductors - Thermal problems (part 2)

When it comes to the heating of electronic components, and in particular their self-heating, it's very important not to lose sight of the fact that the electrical power they dissipate can be strongly influenced by the temperature distribution in their active zone. Indeed, many fundamental electrical parameters of semiconductor devices are more or less temperature-dependent. The most important of these are intrinsic carrier concentration, which strongly influences the current density in a PN junction, and carrier mobility, which determines the ohmic voltage drop in regions where the electric current is generated by low-value electric fields. The electrical and thermal behavior of the component are therefore closely coupled, and depend on the internal electrothermal equilibrium that is established in the component when it is subjected to an electrical bias. We won't go into the case of components...