Improved surge current capability of power diode with copper metallization and heavy copper wire bonding

Copper metallization and copper wire bonding of high power semiconductor devices have attracted growing attention in recent years due to potentially much improved reliability and increased lifetime. However, significant technical challenges still remain for its wide commercial use. Here a thick copper layer has been successfully grown onto 3300V fast recovery diodes and subsequently 16mil copper wires were used to bond the chips onto substrates. Much improved surge current performance of these copper metallized and heavy copper wire-bonded diodes over its aluminium counterpart is reported here, and the results are analysed with the help of simulation.