Numerical and Experimental Determination of Temperature Distribution in 3D Stacked Power Devices

During the last few decades, the microelectronics packaging industry has moved into the 2.5D to 3D space for increased density, functionality, and speed. Similar concepts and ideas for developing 2.5D to 3D power electronics packaging are desired to achieve even greater efficiency and power density over conventional power electronics packaging methods. Wide-band gap (WBG) semiconductors, such as SiC and GaN, have accelerated the ability to shrink the volumetric size and weight of these power conversion systems, and thus improve overall power density metrics, due to their inherent high frequency, high temperature, and high voltage capabilities. WBG power semiconductor devices, with these attributes, thus make themselves excellent candidates for more aggressive packaging, compared to Si-derived packaging, in order to not only take full advantage of the WBG device ratings, but also to achieve high power densities of the overall power conversion systems. Already different/multiple power semiconductor devices are being combined by processing them together on the same die to boost electrical performance and increase power density. It can be assumed that further levels of integration will be sought after for the next levels of packaging to enable similar gains, especially with the advent of double side solderable die. The 3D stacking of die, components, and substrates creates the question of how well will each of these perform in close proximity to each other. This work focuses on the numerical simulation and experimental measurements to predict the temperature distribution of power converters built in a stacked fashion. Thermal models of a stacked power electronic switching unit — a silicon controlled rectifier and anti-parallel diode — are modeled under the assumption of equally sized die. Temperature field maps are generated for 20W to 250W of power dissipations across the power semiconductor die. Thermal models are then compared with matching experimental setups to observe the effect of switching unit placement attached to a given substrate on the die junction temperatures for various scenarios of thermal crosstalk. Results from this work are expected to aid in the development 2.5D to 3D power electronic packaging by predicting thermal performance of stacked, ultra-dense, WBG device -based packages.