Copper ribbon bonding for power electronics applications

Power electronics has gained an enormous significance in the European research area: With CO2 reduction as one of the grand challenges in our industrial society, the economy asks for large-scale energy harvesting from natural regenerative resources on one hand, and for energy efficient electronic devices on the other. Although power electronics systems have their own challenges, there is a general trend towards miniaturization that is almost comparable to the history of microelectronics. Key technologies like wafer thinning and assembly operations like die attach and thick wire or ribbon bonding are on their way to a considerable market. Embedded in a regional north-German competence cluster, the Fraunhofer-Institute for Silicon Technology ISIT investigates novel technologies for power electronics module integration. In this paper, we want to present our latest progress in large Copper ribbon bonding. Our work was performed on test diodes and DBC substrates, using 200 mu m thick and 2 mm wide Copper ribbons.