Ceramic substrates with aluminum metallization for power application

The reliability of power electronic devices is significantly related to the material properties of the applied substrates which carry the semiconductor chip and the electric interconnections. The most common solution to fulfill the stringent requirements of these devices, with respect to high isolation voltage, good thermal conductivity, high temperature cycling reliability and low cost, is to use ceramic substrates with copper layers on both sides. However, the currently increasing reliability standards in power electronics lead to a situation where common DCB substrates reach their limits in meeting these higher requirements.