SEMI-TAPS: SUPPRESSION OF ELECTRO-MAGNETIC-INTERFERENCE THROUGH ADVANCED PACKAGING OF SEMICONDUCTORS
Abstract
Electrical power demands for US Navy surface combatants are projected to continue increasing, largely fueled by the integration of high-energy weapons and sensor systems which are critical to sustaining the technical superiority of the US Navy fleet. This escalation of demand is expected to drive future electric ship architectures to MVDC power distribution and the use of wide bandgap(WBG) semiconductors such as Silicon Carbide (SiC) to achieve acceptable system power density. MVDC-capable SiC semiconductors have been under development for a number of years, and show great promise for the simultaneous attainment of high power density and high efficiency in shipboard systems. However, the same properties which lead to these important benefits also introduce undesirable side effects in the form of increased high-frequency content in the ~Near-RF~ range from 1-30 MHz. This increase in undesirable high frequency content has been shown in the literature to lead to increased electromagnetic interference (EMI) in the form of both differential-mode (DM) and common-mode (CM) conducted emissions. Both the causes and impacts of CM and DM conducted emissions are poorly understood, even with today~s slower semiconductors; and this knowledge gap is broadening with the introduction of SiC technology.Under the auspices of past and current ONR-funded efforts, the PI of the current proposal has been studying the EMI characteristics of SiC-based systems, with an emphasis on understanding the expected impacts in the shipboard environment. These studies have uncovered a previously unexplored means for mitigating this high-frequency behavior through modifications to the physical packaging of the semiconductor devices, which are known to be responsible forgenerating a substantial portion of these emissions. This discovery inspired the proposed program, which is entitled Suppressing EMI through the Advanced Packaging of Semiconductors (SEMI-TAPS). SEMI-TAPS seeks to address the propagation of both conducted and radiated EMI by canceling and containing emissions at the source, as opposed to conventional practice that involves addressing the symptoms of EMI after emissions have emanated into the broader system. This can be accomplished by applying new insight into the design of the semiconductor packaging, and specifically by considering degrees of freedom within the design of multi-chip power modules (MCPMs) which are ignored today, to the detriment of the EMI performance of the resulting systems. The specific packaging design concepts proposed by SEMI-TAPS have been vetted by both time-domain circuit simulation and finite element analysis, and are believed to offer substantial improvement to the EMI behavior of shipboard systems, without significant penalties in either the thermal or electrical domains. The SEMI-TAPS program will seek to reduce these concepts to practice and will empirically validate these projections in a manner relevant to future shipboard power system design.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jul 10, 2018
- Source ID
- N000141812260
Entities
People
- Andy Lemmon
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Alabama