Design and Fabrication of a SiC-Based Power Module with Double-Sided Cooling for Automotive Applications

Book chapter, 2016

The electrification of drive trains combined with special requirements of the automotive and heavy construction equipment applications drives the development of small, highly integrated and reliable power inverters. To minimize the volume and increase the reliability of the power switching devices a module consisting of SiC devices with double sided cooling capability has been developed. There are several benefits related to cooling the power devices on both sides. The major improvement is the ability to increase the power density, and thereby reduce the number of active switching devices required which in turn reduces costs. Other expected benefits of more efficient cooling are reductions in volume and mass per power ratio. Alternatively, improved reliability margins due to lower temperature swings during operation are can be expected. Removing the wire bonds on the top side of the devices is expected to improve the reliability regardless, since wire bonds are known to be one of the main limitations in power switching devices. In addition, it is possible to design the package with substantially lower inductance, which can allow faster switching of the devices. In this paper the design, simulations and fabrication process of a double sided SiC-based power module are presented.