Power electronic modules serve a critical role in today's world which relies on power electronics... more Power electronic modules serve a critical role in today's world which relies on power electronics so heavily. Many aspects of daily life, the economy, and society revolve around reliable electric power delivery and management, so there is good incentive to improve system reliability and performance. In this paper, some of the research of different packaging technologies is reviewed to show improved reliability and performance primarily in terms of thermal management. With the maturing of semiconductor device research for wide bandgap semiconductors like Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) that can operate at higher voltages, currents, switching speed, and temperature, it is apparent that device operating potential is much less a limitation for power electronics as compared to the limits of packaging. Dissipating the high-power outputs of the devices while also maintaining mechanical integrity to continue being able to operate and protect the devices is now the main engineering challenge. The specific technologies reviewed include comparison of die attach options such as wire bonding with solder bumping interconnects and embedded packaging. As well there is review of double-sided cooling advancements along with micro-channel heat sinks. What was found is that wire bondless options reduce thermal resistance, electrical resistance, and parasitic inductance and have improved reliability. Double sided cooling which is available for certain packaging can greatly reduce thermal resistance and use of forced flow water convection through microchannel heat sinks can lead to high heat transfer coefficients for the system, especially if also using double sided cooling.
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Papers by Isaac Raphael