FEA-Based Thermal-Mechanical Design Optimization for DBC Based Power Modules

DBC (direct bonded copper) is used as a standard power module substrate by industry. In this paper, the behavior of the thermal spreading for DBC based power modules is studied. To enhance thermal performance, design guide for choosing the optimized layer thickness and substrate size is discussed. Moreover, mechanical failures for difference materials in DBC substrate are briefly summarized. Based on these failure mechanisms, an objective function is used to develop an FEA (finite elements analysis) based optimization model for minimizing thermal-mechanical stress. The optimization platform converges and an optimized DBC substrate was generated successfully. Keywords—power module, DBC, thermal management, mechanical failure, CTE mismatch, optimization design, FEA

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