Semiconductor Module External Current Bridge Relocation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional semiconductor modules with leadless chip-scale packages experience high power loss densities and reliability issues due to solder joint fractures and mold delamination, particularly in the current bridge between high-side and low-side transistors, leading to thermal and thermomechanical stress.
Innovation Solution
The semiconductor module design relocates the current bridge outside the housing, using contact extensions connected via a contact element to form a low-inductance current path, eliminating internal current constrictions and heat input, and allowing direct connection to a stator winding, thereby reducing thermal and mechanical stress and enhancing reliability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the current bridge is formed inside the housing using a soldered joint, then the semiconductor module can be compactly integrated, but the soldered joint experiences high current densities and power loss leading to reliability risks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the current bridge formation from the internal housing structure and relocates it to external contact extensions. The contact extensions protrude from the housing and establish electrical connections outside the molded housing, thereby removing the high-stress soldered joint from the vulnerable internal environment where it would otherwise experience high current densities and thermal stress.
2Power
If high current densities flow through the soldered joint in the current bridge, then the semiconductor module can achieve high power capacity, but thermal and thermomechanical stress causes soldered joint fracture and mold delamination
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the high-stress current path from the internal soldered joint and relocates it to external contact extensions. These extensions carry the high current densities outside the housing, preventing the soldered joint from experiencing thermal and thermomechanical stress that would otherwise lead to fracture and delamination.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions the current bridge from a two-dimensional internal planar connection to a three-dimensional external structure. The contact extensions protrude outward from the housing in the vertical dimension, creating a spatial separation between the high-current path and the internal soldered joints, thereby reducing thermal coupling and mechanical stress on the soldered connections.
3Volume of moving object
If the electrical conduction elements are confined within the housing boundaries, then the module achieves leadless compact design, but the current path creates high power loss densities near the exposed surfaces
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the current path from the confined internal space and extends it outward through contact extensions. This allows the high-current path to traverse a longer distance outside the housing, distributing the power loss over a larger volume and reducing the power loss density at any single location near the exposed surfaces.
Data Source
AI summary
A semiconductor module has at least two semiconductor components which are arranged within a housing in each case between two electrical conduction elements and are electrically conductively connected to the electrical conduction elements. The electrical conduction elements respectively have a contact extension that is led out of the housing, wherein two contact extensions arranged in different planes are connected to one another outside the housing via a contact element, which forms a current path between the two contact extensions outside the housing.