Corrosion-Compatible Drive Electronics for Electric Vehicles and Industrial Power Modules

One of the tasks of the research project is to develop large-area sintered joints on copper and aluminum water heat sinks in order to realize corrosion-compatible use in electric vehicles. To this end, strategies are being developed to equalize the strain differences of the different materials in the assembly and interconnection technology of the power modules, thus helping to reduce the Coefficients of Thermal Expansion (CTE) mismatch. This will help to extend the lifetime of power modules. Therefore, one goal is to conduct investigations with different materials and metallization between the power electronics and the heat sink, so that an adjustment of the CTE to the packaging and interconnection technology in the active (hot) area can be made. To achieve these goals, the development of suitable large-area sintering pastes and the implementation of necessary modifications to sintering tools and machines are required. Furthermore, the development of suitable failure analysis methods are helpful for the analysis of defects in the samples.