A Novel Method for Measuring the Temperature in the Active Region of Semiconductor Modules

The temperature in the active region of semiconductor modules can be measured by a vacuum system method. The test device is positioned on a vacuum test platform and heated in two ways, from the chip and from the case, to identify the required heat to establish stable temperature gradients for the two processes, respectively. A complementary relationship between the temperatures under the two heating methods is found. By injecting the total heat into the device, the resulting uniform temperature can be derived from the temperature curves of the chip and case. It is demonstrated that the temperature obtained from this vacuum system method is equivalent to the normal operating temperature of the device in the atmosphere. Further comparison of our result with that of the electrical method also shows good agreement.