Power Semiconductor Packaging in PV Inverters up to 30 kW power, a difficult choice

This paper shows how developers are spoilt for choice while choosing a packaging concept for a new power electronic system or sub-system and also addresses the needs and requirements of future packaging solutions. For example some new Asian PV Inverters come up with semiconductor packaging solutions which have gone out of style regarding to European semiconductor and packaging companies. And even in Europe PV Inverters up to a power rating of 27kW are manufactured using discrete power components. This paper starts with an overview about the requirements of semiconductor packages and arrangements for power electronic converters in the range from several kW up to approx. 30kW. The impacts of the power semiconductor package solutions on other parameters, especially the PCB design and principal cooling solutions are shown and discussed based on examples. An analysis of three different packaging solutions is presented. The promises and limits of new semiconductor materials like SiC in according to converters are demon-strated and discussed considering the special requirements for packaging solutions enabling the application with a high performance.