The mosfet is probably the workhorse of power electronics. Although used so extensively, the modeling of the mosfet is not that straightforward, including a lot of pitfalls. Depending on the application where the mosfet is used, also the model should be chosen carefully. In many cases the ideal mosfet modeled by an on-off resistance controlled from a block diagram is sufficient.
The dynamics can be included by adding a RC or time delay to model the delay caused by the gate charging and some wire inductance to model the overvoltage during switching.
If more detailed wave forms are required, the complete non-linear mosfet model would be more appropriate.
The non-linear capacitances of the mosfet finally determine the dynamic transient response during switching.
What model is required
In the first place the static characteristic determines the static (mostly on-state) losses. If the mosfet is switching fast, the model can be approximated by a simple on-off switch.
More detailed modeling would also include the dependency on the gate voltage, where the on resistance is modeled as a non-linear function of VDS and VGS. This is required if also the driver is modeled in detail and a more accurate simulation result is expected regarding the parasitic components surrounding the mosfet.
Static transfer function
The static transfer function for the mosfet is defined as:
Ohmic Region: | IDS=(KP/2) · VDS · (2 · (VGS-VTO)-VDS) |
Active Region: | IDS=(KP/2) · (VGS-VTO)2 |
Dynamics
The gate capacitance CGS is constant in this model. The other capacitances are non-linear and are modeled by the parameters CGD, CDS, VJ, M and FC.
The capacitances are depending on the voltage across them by:
Integrated reverse conducting diode
The reverse conducting diode of the mosfet is always included in the model of the mosfet. The parameters can be set such to make it a very worse diode and also the reverse recovery of the diode can be included. The dynamic model for the diode is based on partly based on spice or on measurement parameters. A great advantage compared to the original Spice model is that the dynamic diode model can also simulate reverse recovery.
The reverse diode is modeled as an ideal diode, but including reverse recovery.
The reverse recovery in the diode model is based on stored charge during the conduction interval. Dependent on the way the diode is forced to turn-off, the reverse recovery current is provided by the stored charge in the diode.
This can be modeled and parameterized in various ways:
IF | The maximum forward current during the conduction of the diode. During conduction the total amount of charge is depending on this value. |
dIF/dt | The gradient of the diode current during turn of, measured at the zero crossing of the diode current. This value is depending on the load circuit connected to the diode and the parasitic inductance in series with the diode. |
QRR | The reverse recovered charge is taken from the specification in the data sheet and is specified for a typical forward current IF and turn off gradient dIF/dt of the forward current |
TRR | The reverse recovery time is taken from the specification in the data sheet and is specified for a typical forward current IF and turn off gradient dIF/dt of the forward current |
Losses and Thermal simulation
The mosfet model has a thermal connection that has to be connected to a heat sink model.
The temperature rise due to the conduction, switching and reverse recovery losses is modeled on this connection.
A heat sink is build from the components found in components/library/Heatsink The parameter Rth and Cth model the thermal model form junction to case. The initial temperature of the junction is modeled by the parameter Tth0.
If a more detailed thermal model for the junction to case thermal path has to be build, Rth and Cth simply model the first chip-layer and the following layers are modeled by subsequent thermal models.
Overview of the parameters
The parameters for the mosfet are summarized in the following table. For the parameters that are compatible with the spice diode model the column Spice shows the spice parameter name.
Parameters that do not exist in the spice model are indicated with N.A. Default values for the parameters are given.
Parameter | Default | Spice | Function |
VTO | 3 | VTO | Gate threshold voltage |
KP | 6.4 | KP | Gain |
RG | 10 | RG | Internal Gate resistance |
RD | 190mOhm | RD | Internal Drain resistance |
Parameter | Default | Spice | Function |
CDS | 730pF | CDS | Drain Source Capacitance maximum value |
CGD | 50pF | CGD | Gate Drain Capacitance maximum value |
CGS | 2350pF | CGS | Gate Source Capacitance constant value |
FC | 0.5 | N.A. | Forward bias junction fit parameter |
M | 0.5 | N.A. | Grading coefficient |
VJ | 1 | N.A. | Junction Potential |
Parameter | Default | Spice | Function |
LD | 10nH | N.A. | Drain wire inductance |
LG | 5nH | N.A. | Gate wire inductance |
LS | 12nH | N.A. | Source wire inductance |
Parameter | Default | Spice | Function |
IS | 10-14 | IS | Saturation current. |
BV | 650Volt | BV | Reverse breakdown "knee" voltage. |
N | 1.5 | N | Emission coefficient. |
TT | 0 | TT | Forward Storage Time (Transit Time). |
RS | 1mOhm | RS | On resistance. |
τrr (tau_rr) | 0 | N.A. | Decay time constant of the reverse recovery current after IRR. If this value is set to zero, the diode has a snappy recovery. |
IF | 0 | N.A. | Measured maximum forward current. |
dIF/dt | 0 | N.A. | Measured current gradient during turn off. (Measure at the zero-crossing) |
QRR | 0 | N.A. | Measured reverse recovery charge. |
TRR | 0 | N.A. | Measured reverse recovery time. |
Parameter | Default | Spice | Function |
Rth | 1 | N.A. | Thermal junction-case resistance. |
Cth | 0.5m | N.A. | Thermal junction-case capacitance. |
Tth0 | 25 | N.A. | Initial junction temperature. |