Physical Design Automation for High-Density 3D Power Module Layout Synthesis and Optimization

With the on-going trend of electrification of transport, ultra-high-density power electronics with advanced 2.5D and 3D packaging are drawing attention. At present, the power module design is still a manual and time-consuming procedure. Floorplanning, placement, routing, and parasitic extraction need to be performed carefully to enhance performance without sacrificing reliability. Inspired by design automation tools for VLSI circuits, design automation tools for power electronics can dramatically reduce the engineering time and costs. As 3D power module fabrication is on the horizon to further improve power density, in this work, we present physical design algorithms to automate the 3D power module layout synthesis and optimization. Hierarchical corner stitch and constraint graphs are used to guarantee manufacturable layouts. Our algorithms are generic and scalable to integrate heterogeneous components with multiple devices and routing layers into a single power module. We demonstrate the improvement in the electro-thermal performance of a half-bridge 3D power module over a 2D counterpart. Also, the effectiveness and efficiency of our algorithms are demonstrated using real-world 3D power module designs.