Squeezing out more from Power Semiconductor Devices and the Struggle for Robustness and Reliability

Progress in power semiconductor devices can only be achieved if experts from science and practice work together. This requires expertise from experts in a wide range of fields, such as:

• materials
• field simulation
• production automation

Only by an interdisciplinary approach, the challenge of integration, miniaturization, increasing power levels and harsher environments at still good robustness and reliability can be met.

In older device generations, certain areas of a device had individual tasks, e.g. insulation, heat transfer or conduction. Today, the situation gets more and more complex as the areas are closer together and have a stronger influence on each other. For example, an insulation material needs to insulate at any temperature and temperature swings, at steep voltage transients and over-voltages, under humidity and maybe even contaminants. And it should protect the semiconductors from all adverse influences. After all, the progress on semiconductor chips has to go together with progress on packaging and cooling. This technical presentation addresses the challenge of increasingly complex semiconductor chip requirements.

The VDMA Productronic division has been part of the VDMA EMINT (Electronics, Micro and New Energy Production Technologies) trade association since 2014. The 77 member companies of Productronic develop and manufacture machines and systems for a wide range of electronics production: starting with design, crystal pulling, substrate cleaning and etching, thin-film coating and ending with optical and electrical inspection.