Thermal Fatigue Reliability of High-Temperature-Resistant Joint for Power Devices

The power electronics equipments for Electric vehicles such as the inverter are strongly demanded on downsizing and weight reduction. For these requirements, Silicon Carbide (SiC) devices are receiving particular attention. SiC devices are characterized by lower-loss and higher temperature operation compared with Si devices. Using the devices under high temperature, the cooling equipments can be miniaturized. However, a function of stress relaxation that the existing solder has is difficult to be expected in a high-temperature-resistant joint layer for SiC devices, because the joint layer is generally hard. So, the authors have proposed a new mounting structure that a metal circuit on a substrate has the function instead of the joint layer. In this study, high-temperature-resistant mounting structures that the chip was bonded by low temperature sintering method using Ag nano-particles to substrate with Ag/Ni plating are prepared. Thermal Cycle Test (TCT) using these samples of harsh temperature range was conducted. As a result a new critical issue on the chip joint was identified. To clarify the thermal fatigue mechanism, the Finite-Element-Analysis (FEA) was carried out. The analysis model simulated a thin layer of Ag/Ni plating and the high-temperature-resistant joint layer. By the FEM results, the thermal fatigue, particularly occurring crack, was affected by the micro structures.