Royal Philips Electronics (Eindhoven, the Netherlands) announced the launch of its Loss Free Package (LFPAK), claimed to be the world's first thermally and electrically enhanced version of the industry-standard SO8 package. The new semiconductor package offers improved power handling and thermal resistance by overcoming the thermal limitations of the SO8 package and enabling resistance comparable to those of other larger power packages. The LFPAK is suitable for high-frequency power switching applications in the telecommunications industry that require high-density dc/dc converters.
There are two main structural differences between the new LFPAK and the original SO8 package. The drain connection is made to a heat spreader, which has an exposed face and provides the primary low thermal resistance pathway from the device silicon. The source connection is also made using a relatively large copper plate compared to the thin bond wires used in the SO8 package. Additional benefits include reduced package resistance, where the package resistance is typically reduced to 0.8 milliOhms, an improvement of approximately 50 percent.
The LFPAK is in volume production right now. The LFPAK in two n-channel, enhancement-mode, field-effect transistors, the PH3230 and the PH5330, are currently being offered.
