Title: Effects of Encapsulant Properties on the Thermo-Mechanical Reliability of Double-Side Cooled Power Modules for Traction Inverters
Presenter: Filip Boshkovski received his B.S. in materials science and engineering from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA in 2020 and is currently pursuing an M.S. degree with the Center for Power Electronics Systems. His current research interests include power module packaging, characterization, and utilization of WBG devices.
Advisor: GQ Lu
Abstract: Double-side cooled power modules are being developed for next-generation traction inverters due to their better heat extraction, lower profile, and lower parasitic inductances. However, due to their rigid structure, they cause reliability concerns arising from high thermo-mechanical stresses at the interconnection joints in the module. In this work, a materials-based approach using rigid encapsulants is presented for reducing the thermo-mechanical fatigue. Finite-element thermo-mechanical simulations were performed to examine the effects of the elastic modulus and coefficient of thermal expansion of epoxy-based encapsulants on the bond deformation inside a double-side cooled power module. It was found that a rigid encapsulant with high modulus and a coefficient of thermal expansion around 20 ppm/oC would improve the thermo-mechanical reliability of double-side cooled power modules.
Keywords: Double-side cooled power modules, thermo-mechanical reliability, rigid encapsulant
