A project team led by Professor Katsuaki Suganuma, Osaka University, in which Showa Denko (SDK) participates, has successfully developed a hybrid board structure for silicon-carbide (SiC) based power devices which can stably operate even under high-temperature condition of 300 degrees C.
This project was organized as university-industry research collaboration under the leadership of Professor Suganuma with the object of developing board structures for heat-resistant SiC power devices. Professor Suganuma focused on a heat-resistant property of aluminum, developed special aluminum material and packaging technologies, and realized a material structure that develops no defect even under the temperature cycle of -40 to 300 degrees C.
SDK has been participating in the project team, and providing the team with technologies to develop materials for direct brazed aluminum (DBA) circuit boards and cooling devices, technologies to solder those materials, and heat radiation design for the whole structure of the hybrid circuit board. In 2010, SDK was awarded the 45th Oyamada Medal from the Japan Institute for Light Metals as commendation to the development of cooling apparatus for power devices featured with these technologies.
Under the ongoing medium-term business plan "Project 2020+," SDK has been promoting development of parts and materials for power modules. Taking advantage of its technologies to design and process diverse materials, SDK will aim to develop and offer new parts and materials for power modules with superb high-temperature tolerance and heat-dissipation efficiency, technologies to evaluate performance of power modules equipped with these parts and materials, and solution to realize downsized high-output power modules.
