Search

This paper presents a three-dimensional (3-D) wire bondless power module using silicon carbide (SiC) power devices. Commercially available SiC power devices are designed for wire bonding. Wire bonds have an inherent parasitic inductance that limits high-frequency switching. This results in an underutilization of the full potential of SiC power devices, which have very low switching losses at high frequencies. Wire-bonded power modules run into a performance ceiling when it comes to ultrafast switching. This paper strives to provide a solution to this issue, which involves reconfiguring a commercially available bare die SiC power device into a flip-chip-capable device. A wire bondless SiC Schottky diode package was demonstrated and its performance was contrasted with a conventional wire-bonded package. A 24% reduction in the ON-state resistance was observed in the wire bondless package. As a next step, wire bondless SiC MOSFET packages were developed and tested in a half-bridge configuration in a highly integrated 3-D arrangement. This approach departs from the conventional concept of a power module—demonstrating a direct-bonded-copper-less and baseplate-less half-bridge switching cell. Double-pulse tests conducted on the cell showed >3× reduction in the parasitic inductance of the 3-D cell as compared with a conventional wire-bonded module. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the plan and initial feasibility studies for an Integrated Wire Bond-less Power Module. Contemporary power modules are moving toward unprecedented levels of power density. The ball has been set rolling by a drastic reduction in the size of bare die power devices owing to the advent of wide bandgap semiconductors such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride. SiC has capabilities of operating at much higher temperatures and faster switching speeds compared with its silicon counterparts, while being a fraction of their size. However, electronic packaging technology has not kept pace with these developments. High-performance packaging technologies do exist in isolation, but there has been limited success in integrating these disparate efforts into a single high-performance package of sufficient reliability. This article lays the foundation for an electronic package designed to completely leverage the benefits of SiC semiconductor technology, with a focus on high reliability and fast switching capability. The interconnections between the gate drive circuitry and the power devices were implemented using a low temperature cofired ceramic interposer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]