Design and Characterization of 3.3 kV-15 kV rated DBC Power Modules for Developmental Testing of WBG devices

An increasing number of power circuit designers are moving into designs at the bare die module-level to achieve greater circuit integration for lower inductance and better thermal management. Similarly, those who will use off-the-self modules are looking deeper inside the power modules to understand, discern, and optimize differences that impact gate driver design, power-loop designs and electro-physical layout between bare die. The ability for designers to have a greater understanding of the die-level module further advances adoption of WBG devices. This paper provides a description of open-source designs, fabrication, and test results for two DBC-based power modules. One is a SOT-227 footprint -based 6.5 kV DBC module, while the other is a 15 kV DBC module. The modules are specifically designed for mounting and testing new WBG power semiconductors under development, and as such, are designed for extreme operations under test. The characterization of the two modules and detailed insight into the ‘why’ in the design decisions provides the working engineer a clear understanding of variances in power module parameters and resulting effects on the module performance. The module designs are scalable, house single and multiple diodes and/or MOSFETs, include built-in current-sense and temperature monitoring, have Kelvin drain-source connections to reduce blanking-time, and utilize techniques to reduce stray inductance and resistance. The full designs are available for anyone’s use at www.go.ncsu.edu/prees_open_source