Simulation and modeling for power electronics

Abstract

Existing power semiconductor and magnetic models are compared for their accuracy and convenience, and simulators are compared for their modeling ability. The desirability of integrating a fast simulator with an accurate analog simulator in a common working environment is addressed. The analog simulators of interest for power electronics are all general-purpose analog or electronic circuit simulators, while fast simulators are used mainly for power electrons. Software manufacturers may be reluctant to narrow their customer base by adding a feature useful to only a limited group. Thus, the fast simulators must be adapted to the general-purpose simulator environment for an integration of these two simulation approaches to occur. It is further noted that, although the analog circuit simulators currently available (such as SPICE or SABER) contain elementary semiconductor and magnetic device models, these models fail to simulate important power (high-voltage) device phenomena. In addition, many power device types such as thyristors or IGBTs (insulated-gate bipolar transistors) are omitted from these model libraries. New device types and combination devices also need to be included.