In this work, a physics-based model is derived based on a linearization procedure for investigating the electrical, thermal and electro-thermal instability of power metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistors. The proposed model can be easily interfaced with a circuit or device simulator to perform a failure analysis, making it particularly useful for power transistors. Furthermore, it allows mapping the failure points on a three-dimensional (3D) space defined by the gate-width normalized drain current, drain voltage and junction temperature. This leads to the definition of the Safe Operating Volume (Soy), a powerful frame work for making failure predictions and determining the main root of instability (electrical, thermal or electro-thermal) in different bias and operating conditions. A comparison between the modeled and the measured SOV of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) LDMOS transistors is reported to support the validity of the proposed stability analysis. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.