Higher power density through packaging

The Dutch company Nexperia says it can boost circuit power density not through use of special wide-bandgap semiconductors, but rather through use of a new component package. Called the LFPAK88, the new MOSFET package eliminates the use of aluminum bond wire connections to transistors and substitutes copper clip connections. This scheme, illustrated in the much larger than life cutaway, helps spread heat and current over the transistor die. Real versions of the package are visible in the motor drive circuit, center. The new package also has thinner dimensions than older versions, a fact that brings an 80% reduction in inductance associated with packaging. The new packages have a continuous current rating of 425 A, a fact that Nexperia illustrated with a demo featuring about 200 A of current going through a LFPAK88-packaged MOSFET and then through ordinary copper wires, which glowed red hot.