Thermal Performance of an Integrated Heat Spreader for GaN HEMT devices

Abstract:
Utilizing the fast switching speed of gallium nitride (GaN) devices requires compact and low inductive printed circuit board (PCB) layouts. A heatsink is mounted to operate the GaN devices at high power. However, auxiliary components such as DC-link capacitors or gate drivers must be moved out of proximity or to the other side of the PCB to fit the heatsink. This paper analyses an integrated heat spreader solution which provides flexibility in designing an optimized electrical layout as well as providing thermal performance that is comparable to conventional thermal-pad with a flat heatsink cooling method.