AT&S Intros Multi-layer Packaging for Embedded Power Electronics

Austria Technologie & Systemtechnik Aktiengesellschaft (AT&S) together with the EmPower consortium consisting of important industrial players and scientific partners, the development of embedded power packages is now ready for industrialization. This solution provides a significant increase in efficiency and performance for industrial and automotive applications. After 18 months of project work, first results have become visible especially by benchmarking with existing packaging solutions.

Embedding components within an electronic module offers dramatic benefits: Miniaturization through stacking of electronic components. Performance Gains due to the close proximity of vital passive components to the active semiconductor device. Products benefiting from ECP® will be, amongst others, high efficiency power modules, integrated wireless modules, media codecs and high signal integrity applications e.g. sensors and amplifiers. Just as MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical System) and IPD (Integrated Passive Device) emerged from standard semiconductor processes, ECP builds on well proven techniques to create this new class of packages.

Major ECP advantages include: Significant form factor reduction through integration; High reliability; Thermal management; Possibility to integrate EMI shielding; and CTE matching. Reference designs have already been produced and show miniaturization levels up to 50% for power modules. With the new embedding packaging concepts, an efficiency increase through reduction of power losses and reduced thermal resistances has been demonstrated. New plating equipment for wafer level plating has been developed in order to realize double sided copper plated power dies. This enables a new supply chain for embedded power devices and new packaging solutions.

Based on this positive development leading companies from the Automotive, Industrial & Semiconductor industrial sectors are now on the way to industrialize these new package solutions. Power applications (including inverters for renewable power solutions) classified in different power ranges from 50W to 50kW are targets on the industrialization plan.

Andreas Gerstenmayer, CEO AT&S: “The increasing demand in power electronics confirms our strategy to focus on innovative and efficient methods to optimize the use of energy. Based on the results achieved, AT&S is now able to offer customers and potential customers in the Automotive, Industrial as well as in the semiconductor industry our innovative embedded power electronic packaging solutions.”

The EmPower consortium consists of the following members: AT&S – Austria, Continental – Germany, STMicroelectronics – France/Italy, TU Wien – Austria, TU Berlin – Germany, Atotech – Germany, Ilfa – Germany, and Fundico – Belgium.