2014 Volume 11 Issue 3 Pages 20142002
As a FOM (Figure Of Merit), the power density of a power module has grown in an almost constant ratio for the past 20 years in the field of power electronics. This progress has been achieved by the joint development of power chips and a package. A combination of an IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolor Transistor) and an FWD (Free Wheeling Diode) is the most frequent combination of power chips for a power module. The progress of both IGBT and diode is based not only upon the development of device structures but also upon the progress of the wafer process technology, which is derived from a LSI (Large Scale Integrated circuit) process and optimised for the power device. The package technology for power devices is uniquely developed for high reliability even for high power density application. This paper reports both the power chip and the package technologies up to the latest generation for the IGBT power module.
