In the near future the automotive industry shall introduce a wide range of new, high technological functions and applications. These are being driven by the industries demand for a reduction in fuel consumption, pollutant emissions and an overall improvement to vehicle safety.
These new demands go together with the spread of electronics and the implementation of more and more electrically driven systems, with medium and high power capabilities. These electrically driven systems either replace previous hydro-mechanical systems, for Power Steering for instance, or allow for the introduction of new functionalities like engine “Start & Stop”. They can even lead to completely new power train architecture like hybrid vehicles for example. With all these systems the demand for more equipment with power electronics, tailored to the automotive industry, rises tremendously.
Reliable power electronics packaging technologies are available today, but they have been developed for railway and industrial applications. Thus, they correspond to specifications which are quite different from those of automotive, in terms of voltage, operational environment, ambient temperature, vibrations and compactness. The high volumes of the automotive industry also demands more cost efficient applications.
Even though these technologies - based on the use of DBC (Direct Bonded Copper) substrates - can be used for initiating the mentioned functions or applications, there is a strong need to introduce a power packaging technology breakthrough to answer to cost reduction requirements of the automotive market.
This document will introduce the key benefits of using an innovative power electronics packaging technology, Insert Molded Leadframe (IML), tailored to the under hood automotive environment. It will display the IML characteristics depending on die sizes and solder types, in terms of transient thermal response and power cycling, with a strong focus on reliability.