Selected Problems of Power MOSFETs Thermal Parameters Measurements

Abstract

In the paper, selected problems that are related to the measurements of thermal parameters of power MOSFETs that are placed on a common heat sink are analysed. The application of the indirect electrical method, the contact method, and the optical method in measuring self and mutual transient thermal impedances of these transistors is presented. The circuits that are required to perform measurements are presented and described. The errors of measurements are assessed for each of the considered methods. In the case of the indirect electrical method, an additional influence of the selection of a thermo-sensitive parameter and the function approximating thermometric characteristics on the measurement error are taken into consideration. The measurement results of the thermal parameters of the investigated transistors that were obtained using the considered measurement methods in various supply conditions are presented and discussed.

Keywords

• thermal resistance
• transient thermal impedance
• thermal parameters
• power MOSFETs
• measurements