The environmental regulations to reduce average CO₂ emissions, together with general automotive trends, play in favor of greater vehicle electrification and faster deployment of electric vehicles/hybrid electric vehicles (EV /HEV s).

Power modules are a critical element in this transition. According to Yole Intelligence, part of Yole Group, in the Status of the Power Module Packaging Industry report, the power module market for xEV represented a market value of US $807 million in 2020 and will reach US $3.59 billion by 2026.
Innovations in power module design are continuously being developed for enhanced performance. They can be found in all power module structures, from the baseplate and substrate assembly down to the die attach and through the electrical connection.

In this context, Yole Intelligence’s partner, Yole SystemPlus, provides the Automotive Power module Comparison 2022. This offers an in-depth comparative review of seven automotive power modules (including three SiC power modules), with a focus on the packaging level. The modules are from Hitachi, StarPower, Vitesco Technologies, STMicroelectronics, DENSO, and Wolfspeed.

Amine AlloucheTechnology and Cost Analyst, Power Electronics, at Yole SystemPlus said, “This report provides, in its introductory section, exhaustive graphs covering all the trends and design solutions observed in all modules analyzed by Yole SystemPlus in its previous reports. For the seven modules analyzed in this report, we highlight differences in module design and technology parameters and their impact on production cost. Also provided are images of the module’s package, package opening and cross-section, as well as SEM cross-section images of some of the modules.”

Cost simulations are performed for all the modules’ parts (at the die and module level). Processes and costs are only detailed at the module level – substrate: DBC /AMB /plate assembly process and module assembly process. The dies’ processing is not detailed; just the final die cost is imported into the module’s BOM cost.

Finally, this report provides exhaustive physical, technological, and manufacturing cost comparisons of the analyzed modules.