Design Optimization of Hybrid-Switch Soft-Switching Inverters Using Multiscale Electrothermal Simulation.

A multiscale electrothermal simulation approach is presented to optimize the design of a hybrid switch soft-switching inverter using a library of dynamic electrothermal component models parameterized in terms of electrical, structural, and material properties. Individual device area, snubber capacitor, and gate drive timing are used to minimize the total loss of the soft-switching inverter module subject to the design constraints including total device area and minimum on-time consideration. The proposed multiscale electrothermal simulation approach allows for a large number of parametric studies involving multiple design variables to be considered, drastically reducing simulation time.

Simple Thermal-Efficiency Model for CMOS-Microhotplate Design.

Simple, semi-empirical, first-order, analytic approximations to the current, voltage, and power as a function of microhotplate temperature are derived. To lowest order, the voltage is independent of, and the power and current are inversely proportional to, the length of the microhotplate heater legs. A first-order design strategy based on this result is described.