Thermal analysis of insulated metal substrates for automotive electronic assemblies

Two types of insulated metal substrates for surface mounting technology (SM T) for automotive applications were thermally examined by means of the TRAI T method [P.E. Bagnoli, C. Casarosa, M. Ciampi, E. Dallago, Thermal resista nce analysis by induced transient (TRAIT) method for power electronic devic es thermal characterization. Part I: fundamentals and theory, IEEE Transact ions on Power Electronics 13 (1998) 1208-1219]. The results showed a notice ably lower static thermal resistance than other solutions commonly used. Mo reover, TRAIT analysis provided evidence that the residue thermal resistanc e has to be ascribed to the epoxy insulating layer of the IMS substrates, s uggesting that the differences between different types of IMS substrates ar e due to differences in the dielectric deposition technology. (C) 1999 Else vier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.