General Equation to Determine Design Rules for Mitigating Partial Discharge and Electrical Breakdown in Power Module Layouts

Abstract

Systematic design rules to prevent partial discharge in power modules have been formulated for the first time and incorporated into PowerSynth, an electronic design automation tool. The tool’s existing framework for supporting reliability constraints has been leveraged to incorporate voltage and material specific design rules that are informed by finite element simulations. A new general equation to predict the minimum trace gap for various voltages and encapsulants has been determined from these simulations. The tool can now generate layouts of power modules that can be operated up to 30kV.