A comparison study for metalized ceramic substrate technologies: For high power module applications

In the recent few years, high power electronic becomes one of the fastest growing market segments of semiconductor industry, because of the strong demand of high energy conversion efficiency and low energy loss, for the green environment protection. The major applications are motor drivers, UPS, PV inverters, hybrid/electric vehicle, rail traction and wind turbines...etc. Those applications are typically operating at very high voltage (> 200V) and high current (> 50A), and also need to operate under high temperature and harsh environment. Therefore, the circuit boards for such applications must achieve outstanding characteristics in terms of electrical, thermal, and mechanical performance, in order to provide reliable functionality during operation. Ceramics are no doubt the unique material that can offer excellent performance to survive at such operation conditions, and can be used as the core material of the circuit board for power modules. Therefore, in order to further understand the advantages and disadvantages of each ceramic technology, such as DBC, DPC, and thick film substrates, a comprehensive comparison study on reliability, thermal, and electrical performance were discussed.