Integrated Power Electronics Modules (IPEMs) represent an innovative typology of power electronics assemblies able to guarantee several advantages such as increasing of power density, better management of the thermal flows and a significant reduction of the package sizes. Their characteristics make them suitable for applications like motor drives or power conditioning. IPEMs usage in emerging fields like hybrid automotive traction and electric generation from renewable energy sources is continuously increasing. In this paper, we describe the implementation of a devised flow to generate the layer-based electro-thermal PSpice model of an IPEM and the simulation flow of the model. The proposed modeling methodology allows reducing an electro-thermal multi-domain problem to an electrical single one. The general PSpice-like nature of the proposed model makes it suitable for a wide range of simulation frameworks where the integration of heterogeneous multi-physics models could be a difficult task. The outlining of both electrical and thermal PSpice layers is discussed, and the implementation into the final model, by the assistance of custom electronic design automation (EDA) flow, is presented. Besides, we describe the validation procedure of the proposed approach and the results are compared with the ones obtained by a commercial finiteelement-based package used as a benchmark. Two simulation approaches related to specific conversion systems, and related issues, are presented and discussed.

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In this work, the implementation flow of an electrothermal model of an Integrated Power Electronics Module is presented. The methodology is based on an innovative layered approach where the whole system is devised as composed by two distinct layers, an electrical and a thermal one, linked together through the active model of a discrete power MOSFET device. We describe an original methodology aimed at reducing an electro-thermal multi-domain problem to an electrical singledomain one thanks to a mapping between thermal and electrical quantities. The strong point of the proposed approach relies on the fact that layers, generated independently with the aid of FEM simulations, are then melted together in a spice-like macro model that could be used, by engineers, in a pure spice-like design environment without the aid of external mathematical solver engines. Finally, a series of simulation issues are discussed.