[신간의 별자리x] 우리/미술, 그리고 ‘슬픔의 박물관’

Silicon-Carbide (SiC) devices with superior performance over traditional silicon power devices have become the prime candidates for future high-performance power electronics energy conversion. Traditional device packaging becomes a limiting factor in fully realizing the benefits offered by SiC power devices, and thus, improved and advanced packaging structures are required to bridge the gap between SiC devices and their applications. This paper provides a review of the state-of-art advanced module packaging technologies for SiC devices with the focuses on module layout, packaging material system, and module integration trend, and links these packaging advancements to their impacts on the SiC device performances. Through this review, the paper discusses main challenges and potential solutions for SiC modules, which is critical for future SiC applications.

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A review of SiC power module packaging: Layout, material system and integration

Power module packaging technologies have been experiencing extensive changes as the novel silicon carbide (SiC) power devices with superior performance become commercially available. This article presents an overview of power module packaging technologies in this transition, with an emphasis on the challenges that current standard packaging face, requirements that future power module packaging needs to fulfill, and recent advances on packaging technologies. The standard power module structure, which is a widely used current practice to package SiC devices, is reviewed, and the reasons why novel packaging technologies should be developed are described in this article. The packaging challenges associated with high-speed switching, thermal management, high-temperature operation, and high-voltage isolation are explained in detail. Recent advances on technologies, which try to address the limitations of standard packaging, both in packaging elements and package structure are summarized. The trend toward novel soft-switching power converters gave rise to problems regarding package designs of unconventional module configuration. Potential applications areas, such as aerospace applications, introduce low-temperature challenges to SiC packaging. Key issues in these emerging areas are highlighted.

A Review of SiC Power Module Packaging Technologies: Challenges, Advances, and Emerging Issues

The transition to electric road transport technologies requires electric traction drive systems to offer improved performances and capabilities, such as fuel efficiency (in terms of MPGe, i.e., miles per gallon of gasoline-equivalent), extended range, and fast-charging options. The enhanced electrification and transformed mobility are translating to a demand for higher power and more efficient electric traction drive systems that lead to better fuel economy for a given battery charge. To accelerate the mass-market adoption of electrified transportation, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in collaboration with the automotive industry, has announced the technical targets for light-duty electric vehicles (EVs) for 2025. This article discusses the electric drive technology trends for passenger electric and hybrid EVs with commercially available solutions in terms of materials, electric machine and inverter designs, maximum speed, component cooling, power density, and performance. The emerging materials and technologies for power electronics and electric motors are presented, identifying the challenges and opportunities for even more aggressive designs to meet the need for next-generation EVs. Some innovative drive and motor designs with the potential to meet the DOE 2025 targets are also discussed.

Electric Drive Technology Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities for Future Electric Vehicles

Wide-bandgap (WBG) power semiconductor devices have become increasingly popular due to their superior characteristics compared to their Si counterparts. However, their fast switching speed and the ability to operate at high frequencies brought new challenges, among which the electromagnetic interference (EMI) is one of the major concerns. Many works investigated the structures of WBG power devices and their switching performance. In some cases, the conductive or radiated EMI was measured. However, the EMI-related topics, including their influence on noise sources, noise propagation paths, EMI reduction techniques, and EMC reliability issues, have not yet been systematically summarized for WBG devices. In this article, the literature on EMI research in power electronics systems with WBG devices is reviewed. Characteristics of WBG devices as EMI noise sources are reviewed. EMI propagation paths, near-field coupling, and radiated EMI are surveyed. EMI reduction techniques are categorized and reviewed. Specifically, the EMI-related reliability issues are discussed, and solutions and guidelines are presented.

A Survey of EMI Research in Power Electronics Systems With Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Devices

Wiring inductance has a critical effect on electrical, thermal, and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) performances in inverters. Therefore, the low stray inductance laminated busbar, as a state-of-the-art pathway interface, is widely used in high-power inverters. However, the asymmetrical stray inductances of the laminated busbar may cause different voltage and thermal stresses for semiconductor devices of the same power stage. In order to achieve low and symmetrical stray inductances in the laminated busbar, this paper presents the investigation, evaluation, and optimization of the stray inductances of the laminated busbar. Based on the current commutation loop (CCL) analysis, the investigation of two-layer, three-layer, and multilayer laminated busbars is proposed through three-dimensional (3-D) finite element analysis (FEA) simulations. It can be found that the skin effect, mutual effect, CCL length, CCL separation distance, and split plate significantly influence the stray inductance of laminated busbars. Furthermore, the multilayer laminated busbar structure for multilevel neutral point clamped (NPC) inverter is derived. On the basis of the theoretical analysis, CCL stray inductances of a three-layer laminated busbar are extracted by means of FEA simulation and an improved impedance resonant measurement in a single-phase H-bridge high-power inverter. Insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) voltage overshoot waveforms further validate the stray inductance asymmetry of the laminated busbar. A compromise between the stray inductance and symmetry is proposed in the three-layer laminated busbar. Finally, several feasible guidelines for the optimization of the laminated busbar design are introduced.

Investigation, Evaluation, and Optimization of Stray Inductance in Laminated Busbar

SiC devices have the potential to structure high power density converters; however, SiC devices have high d i /d t during switching. Therefore, the parasitic inductances in the power loop and gating loop must be reduced to restrain the induced voltage. This paper proposes a SiC-based, half-bridge (HB) module with a hybrid packaging method. Such a module is based on printed circuit board (PCB) plus direct bonding copper (DBC) structure. The DBC provides part of power loops, and the SiC bare dies can be directly soldered on these loops; the PCB provides another part of the power loops, as well as the gating loops. Such a design allows the power loops on the PCB to be soldered with those on the DBC directly; in the meantime, the SiC bare dies soldered on the DBC can be connected to the PCB with bounding wires. Such a structure provides extra degrees of freedom for design so that the parasitic inductances can be minimized by optimizing the current communication loops, driver locations, and the gating connections, and the heat can also be dissipated through the direct cooling structure easily. A 1200 V/24 A SiC HB module is fabricated with the proposed method in the laboratory, and based on the fabricated module, a synchronous buck converter with power density of 379.3 W/in3 is also structured. The double pulse test shows that the fabricated module can be switched within 10 ns and that the drain-source voltage overshoot is only 2.5%. The highest efficiency of the converter based on the fabricated module is up to 99.46%.

An SiC-Based Half-Bridge Module With an Improved Hybrid Packaging Method for High Power Density Applications

The electric propulsion drives for the more-electric aircraft need lightweight and high-efficiency power converters. Moreover, a modular approach to the construction of the drive ensures reduced costs, reliability, and ease of maintenance. In this article, the design and fabrication procedure of a modular dc–ac three-level t-type single phase-leg power electronics building block (PEBB) rated for 100-kW, 1-kV dc-link is reported for the first time. A hybrid switch (HyS) consisting of a silicon insulated-gate bipolar junction transistor (IGBT) and silicon carbide metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) was used as an active device to enable high switching frequencies at high power. The topology and semiconductor selection were based on a model-based design tool for achieving high conversion efficiency and lightweight. Due to the unavailability of commercial three-level t-type power modules, a printed circuit board (PCB) and off-the-shelf discrete semiconductor-based high-power switch was designed for the neutral-point clamping. Also, a nontrivial aluminum-based multilayer laminated bus bar was designed to facilitate the low-inductance interconnection of the selected active devices and the capacitor bank. The measured inductance indicated symmetry of both current commutation loops in the bus bar and value in the range of 28–29 nH. The specific power and volumetric power density of the block were estimated to be 27.7 kW/kg and 308.61 W/in3, respectively. The continuous operation of the block was demonstrated at 48 kVA. The efficiency of the block was measured to be 98.2%.

Design of a High-Efficiency, High Specific-Power Three-Level T-Type Power Electronics Building Block for Aircraft Electric-Propulsion Drives

This article focuses on providing the laminated busbar design guidance for a three-level T-type neutral-point-clamped (3L-TNPC) inverter to achieve low stray inductance and balanced inductance distribution between paralleled power switches. As a result, equalized dynamic current sharing can be accomplished. To discover the design strategy, this article first derives the mutual-inductance-decoupled equivalent circuit for 3L-TNPC. Then, the effects of each inductance item on switching performance can be unveiled, and the parametric targets are then summarized. Accordingly, the busbar design considerations are discussed. A step-by-step busbar design procedure to achieve the aforementioned design targets is provided in the next. The design procedure starts from 2-D optimization to achieve the optimal component and terminal allocation, and then, it increases the optimization degree to 3-D. Using this design procedure, we proposed a novel double-side-end busbar structure to achieve the busbar stray inductance of 12.7 nH and the inductance differences between the paralleled switches to be less than 2 nH. Extensive experiments are carried out in the end to evaluate the design procedure and demonstrate the performance of the busbar.

Cai Chen

Papers

A review of SiC power module packaging: Layout, material system and integration

Investigation, Evaluation, and Optimization of Stray Inductance in Laminated Busbar

An SiC-Based Half-Bridge Module With an Improved Hybrid Packaging Method for High Power Density Applications

Design of a High-Efficiency, High Specific-Power Three-Level T-Type Power Electronics Building Block for Aircraft Electric-Propulsion Drives

Design and Evaluation of Laminated Busbar for Three-Level T-Type NPC Power Electronics Building Block With Enhanced Dynamic Current Sharing