Silicon Carbide Power Electronics Packaging

Abstract

Significant advances in silicon carbide (SiC) power switch technology over the past decade are driving a technology revolution in the commercial power electronics industry. SiC is the ideal material for a power device. It is paramount that new packaging technologies are developed and implemented in order to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the arrival of SiC power devices. A myriad of material properties are important to evaluate in the selection and design of each package component, ranging from physical, electrical (conductivity, dielectric properties, permeability), thermal (coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), thermal conductivity, specific heat), and practicality (availability, processing methods, ease of manufacture, cost). Ideally, the base plate material would exhibit a high thermal conductivity and a CTE closely matched to the bonded components. One of the keys to develop high-temperature, high-power density packaging technologies is to know and understand material properties and how they behave over temperature so that accurate thermal models can be implemented.