GE and Shinko to Commercialize ‘Power Overlay’ Packaging

GE Ventures and Shinko Electric Industries Co., Ltd. announced that Shinko has been granted a patent license and technology transfer of an advanced embedded packaging solution for power electronics called Power Overlay (POL). This patent license and technology transfer deal is a strategic collaboration between GE and Shinko in both technology and business development. Shinko is currently testing the POL packaging platform, with plans to release solutions in late 2016.

Developed by GE Global Research as part of a major GE focus in power electronics research over the last decade, POL has been licensed to Shinko to industrialize the packaging platform to transition POL for manufacturing efforts to be utilized by GE and others. The platform enables higher efficiency and power density with reduced parasitics, and greatly impacting the power, telecommunications and consumer electronics industries. Power modules designed with POL have proven to have power densities up to 50% higher and efficiency improved up to 10%.

GE’s POL technology has been presented as a packaging solution for SiC-based power converters. POL is a PWB-like planar interconnect system for power packaging. Its four primary advantages are: Low and matched parasitics including low inductance, low resistance and high current capability. The elimination of wire-bonds and solder-bumps. The ability to array multiple die. And a reduction in size and weight while maintaining performance. Together these advantages improve power conversion efficiency and performance while reducing system costs.

“GE is extremely pleased to work with Shinko on the commercialization of the POL technology Shinko brings world class manufacturing process and ability to transition new technologies to production,” said Pat Patnode, President of Licensing for GE Ventures.

“Through Shinko’s extensive manufacturing knowledge, we will be able to achieve value added solutions in order to positively impact the power electronics industry,” said Masato Tanaka, Corporate Officer, General Manager - Research and Development Div. of Shinko. “We look forward to these outcomes and collaborating with GE in the future.”