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Integrated Double-Sided Cooling

Year: 2005
The use of embedded power allows for the possibility of double-sided cooling, in which an additional DBC substrate is soldered on top of the metallization layer. The DBC provides electrical isolation as well as a good heat path. Combinations of the ceramic materials that can be used for the DBC substrate, along with other commercial substrates such as Thermal Clad™ and ALOX™, were numerically investigated to improve thermal performance. Other methods to further improve thermal management include the integration of micro-channel cooling into the top DBC substrate. The results show that the use of double-sided cooling can improve thermal performance by over 30 percent. Although the use of Thermal Clad™ as the top substrate can improve the thermal performance by 36%, an aluminum nitride DBC ceramic provides an additional five percent enhancement over the Thermal Clad™. Significant additional improvement was found with the addition of micro-channel cooling. Experimental investigations were also conducted to demonstrate the benefits of double-sided cooling. It was shown that the use of double-sided cooling with heat sinks on both top and bottom substrates improved thermal performance by 62%. This study has demonstrated the tremendous benefits of embedded power by enabling the use of double-sided cooling. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that this technology offers the possibility for further enhancement through structural modification and material selection.

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