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Power Packaging and Thermal Management for High-Performance WBG Electronics

It wasn’t so long ago that packaging was barely considered when choosing a power semiconductor device — the options were limited and the impact of choosing one package type over another seemed minimal.

Today, however, things are very different. With applications such as EV charging and energy conversion demanding higher currents, greater efficiencies, and higher power densities, factors such as circuit board configuration and packaging type can have a significant impact on device performance.

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Semiconductor packaging must now accommodate frequencies approaching 100 GHz, while withstanding adverse environmental conditions, and providing thermal relief for high-power GaN and SiC devices. Consequently, manufacturers of power semiconductors are investing heavily in packaging technologies and the variety and quantity of options has significantly increased.

Choosing the right package for a given power device is now a critical activity in the design cycle, not only impacting device performance and reliability, but also influencing the manufacturing process and cost. But, with so many packaging types available on the market, how do you find the right one for your solution?

The answer can be found at Avnet Silica. As a leading supplier of power solutions, backed by a network of specialist partners and an in-house team of experts, Avnet Silica are ideally placed to guide you towards the best answer.

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Power electronics packaging

IC packages play a crucial role in electronics, providing a protective case around the delicate semiconductor chip, ensuring it functions correctly, and providing electrical connections to the external environment. Most semiconductors are available in multiple package options, and many types are available depending on their intended use. Common package types include DIP, SOP, QFP, and BGA, each with its own characteristics. DIP is popular for its simplicity and cost-effectiveness, SOP offers superior space efficiency, QFP provides a high pin count, and BGA is renowned for its enhanced electrical performance and superior thermal management capabilities.

The demands of modern applications such as EVs and energy conversion are driving innovation in power electronics design, and designers are increasingly adopting SiC and GaN semiconductor technologies. SiC’s higher operating temperature, for example, has made it popular for applications including on-board charging, traction inversion, and DC-to-DC conversion in battery EVs. A major attraction of GaN, on the other hand, is its ability to shrink product size, supporting higher power densities.

As these new materials enable smaller and more integrated devices capable of handling higher power density levels and operating temperatures, the performance bottleneck shifts from the semiconductor device to the packaging material. New package types are continually emerging, addressing specific needs such as thermal dissipation and shrinking form factors.

Surface mount components (SMT) are increasingly preferred due to their smaller size and higher component density, and SMT equivalents of the traditional TO-220 package include DPAK and D2PAK. Rated for 50 W and 100 W power dissipation, respectively, these packages have large pads on their underside to facilitate heat dissipation, with separate heat sinks are available.

The trend towards higher operating temperatures is pushing solder to its performance limit, creating the need for an alternative bonding method. Sintered metal pastes with improved thermal conductivity and higher melting temperatures have emerged, allowing devices to reliably operate at higher temperatures. Although sintering is in commercial use, there is still a significant price premium over traditional solder and sintering techniques, which can add complexity to the production process.

Topside-cooled SMT packages are also emerging, providing lower thermal resistance and improved device switching performance, with thermal management achieved via single- or dual-sided cooling. The power quad flat no-lead (PQFN), package, compatible with GaN, is also a popular choice nowadays, due to its compact size, low parasitics for very low turn-on resistance [RDS(on)], superior thermal performance, and its numerous multi-die, multi-clip, and wire variations.

While JEDEC and JEITA standards exist for semiconductor packages, the current focus on innovation means that many packages exist which are not classified by these standards. As manufacturers continue to enhance packages for wide bandgap SiC and GaN devices, the number of bespoke devices on the market is forecast to increase, adding to the choice — and potential confusion — for the designer.

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Choosing the right package

With such an extensive — possibly even overwhelming — choice of package types, where does the designer begin? The same device in two different packages may have very different characteristics, such as gate resistance, and may perform quite differently over the operating range of the application. The physical characteristics of the package must also be carefully chosen. Care must be taken to ensure that the package doesn’t constrain die size, hence current carrying capacities of devices such as IGBTs. Also, a SiC MOSFET device and gate driver in different sized packages may cause issues with top-side cooling solutions.

How will the chosen package configurations influence the manufacturing process — and costs? Sintering, for example, requires great care, and specialised resources during manufacturing and this additional time and expense may or may not be justified by subsequent production volumes and margins. Innovative GaN devices may be attractive but bespoke packaging may limit choice to a single supplier, at least in the short term, increasing solution lifecycle risks.

Engineers and designers must understand and grasp these differences when choosing the best package types for their applications. How is it possible to find the right one among many?

Let Avnet Silica help you choose the best package for your application

With a market-leading team of power engineers, FAEs, and an extensive product portfolio, Avnet Silica are the perfect partner to help you optimise package choice. Our relationships with the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers ensure that we constantly have up-to-date knowledge of current and emerging package types. With this knowledge, we are in an ideal position to advise our customers on the pros and cons of different packaging solutions, and also to provide information on new market developments.

Whether you are designing an EV charging solution or looking for the best way of integrating alternative energy sources to the grid, we offer you unparalleled insight into the latest product roadmaps and technology trends in semiconductor packaging.

Avnet Silica has the capabilities to help you develop power electronic solutions at any scale for local authorities, power companies, governments, commercial space owners, and home solutions businesses.

Make sure we are your first port of call when setting out on your power solution design journey.

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