Characterisation of heat spreader materials for pulsed IGBT operation

Insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) have a very high output power and generate correspondingly large amounts of heat. If not dissipated efficiently, this heat will destroy the IC (integrated circuit). Furthermore, since the input to the IGBT is often in the form of a pulsed wave, the rapid repeated heating and cooling of the chip and the surrounding packaging cause physical stresses, which in turn eventually lead to delamination and breakdown. Reducing the magnitude of thermal excursion in pulsed mode operations reduces the amount of stress caused by expansion and contraction, thereby reducing delamination and maintaining component efficiency for a longer period of time. It is therefore important to maintain a low rate of thermal expansion, or have a slow enough change in temperature for the physical stresses not to be damaging. This is normally done with heat sink assemblies, which form an integral part of IGBT design. This study investigates, via simulations using the transmission line matrix method, the thermal responses of some of the popular heat spreader materials. Material combinations within the layered structure of the heat sink assembly will give different thermal responses, and thus an analysis of operational behaviour of these components, with attention given to the input frequency as well as duty cycle, would provide a better guide to designing more suitable and efficient packaging assemblies and heat sinks