Thermal design and analysis for double side cooling 6-in-1 SiC power module

Abstract

In this study, a lead frame based 6-in-1 power module with 6 SiC MOSFET devices aimed for automotive applications is proposed. Different from the conventional power modules, the direct bonded copper (DBC) substrates and the wire-bond interconnections are eliminated from the proposed power module. As such, the proposed power module is with features of lightweight and thin thickness by removing the heavy and thick DBC substrates, as well the high loop wire bond interconnections. Furthermore, the proposed power module is with excellent thermal performance by implementing double side liquid cooling solution. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model has been created for the thermal simulation and the thermal performance of the proposed power module has been evaluated. The effects of thermal interface material (TIM) layer, the thickness of the Cu LF and the flow rate of the coolant in each heat sink on the junction temperature of the SiC chips have been simulated and analyzed. The thermal design guidelines for the proposed 6-in-1 power module are extracted and the optimized thermal design is implemented to the power module.