Properties of Direct Aluminum Bonded Substrates for Power Semiconductor Components

Direct aluminum bonded (DAB) substrates have been developed. They can serve as isolating carriers especially for power electronic circuits or integrated components, respectively, using the standard assembly processes also applied to state of the art direct copper bonded (DCB) substrates. This new type of substrates has been characterized theoretically based on material properties of its layers and experimentally. While it behaves similar to DCB in many respects, the remarkably higher temperature cycling capability of DAB substrates constitutes a major difference, which is also useful to increase reliability of components exposed to extreme environmental temperatures. DAB based moulded integrated components with large chips in this respect have shown to reach a level of reliability which could not be achieved earlier with conventional technology. Outperforming the latter and complementing DCB, DAB can thus, in the future, be expected to explore new, and contribute to optimization of, existing applications with special demand for high reliability or also low weight. This makes this material well suited for use, e.g., in automotive power converters or avionic electronics