Comparison of Silicon Carbide Packages with Different Solder Attach Materials under High Temperature, Fast Power Cycling Conditions

Power cycling is an accelerated reliability test used to induce package-related failure mechanisms through exposure to cyclic thermal and electrical stress. As SiC devices continue to grow in adoption for high power density, high efficiency applications, packaging material tradeoffs must be clearly understood to develop highly reliable packaging systems suitable to meet the lifetime requirements of an end-application environment. Verification of the degradation experienced by various thermo-mechanical stackups during active power cycling is paramount to optimizing packages for applications which exceed standard junction temperature ratings of 150°C. A comparison of the predominant failure mechanisms and lifetime experienced by three different test vehicles, designed to replicate both standard Si IGBT solder attaches and higher-temperature solder attaches, under high temperature (Tj,max = 175°C, ∆T = 80°C), fast (ton < 5 s) power cycling conditions is presented.