Innovative heat removal structure for power devices — The drift region integrated microchannel cooler

Liquid microchannel cooling is approved to be a compact and high-performance solution to deal with the thermal requirements of power devices and modules. This is due to the large heat exchange surface, the high heat transfer coefficient and the minimized thermal interfaces that microchannel coolers offer. This paper reports an original concept for efficient thermal management of power devices based on the integration of a microchannel cooler, including numerous parallel through wafer fluid vias, directly into the drift region of the power device. Simulation results proved that no negative side effects are resulting from this integration regarding the electrical performance of the device. The effectiveness of the proposed cooling technique was evaluated with hydraulic and thermal numerical models. Vertical power diodes with integrated microchannel cooler were fabricated and characterized to demonstrate the feasibility and the effectiveness of the concept.