Evaluation of PMDE Compact and Highly Heat Dissipating Package for Si Diodes: Introduction

Demands for greater compactness of mounted devices in various electronic equipment continue to mount each year. However, in general the allowable dissipation of a package is lower for smaller packages, and so it is extremely important to strike a balance between package compactness and allowable dissipation, particularly in the case of devices for which thermal runaway due to heat dissipation is a possibility, as for example with Schottky barrier diodes (hereafter “SBDs”).

To accommodate such needs, the new PMDE package was adopted for use with SBDs. The PMDE package is a successor to the previous PMDU package, which has been highly evaluated in the automotive industry in particular; the PMDE dimensions are 2.5×1.3×0.95 mm, versus the PMDU dimensions of 3.5×1.6×0.8 mm, and footprint is reduced by about 40%. Despite this, the PMDE package has back electrodes with an area approximately 1.5 times greater, so that a package allowable dissipation comparable to that of the PMDU package is secured, and mounting strength is increased roughly 1.4-fold.

In this section, the outer shapes, inner structures, and other aspects of this PMDE package and the conventional PMDU package will be compared, and assessments will be conducted using thermal simulations and actual equipment.

An application note that is the basis for this article, titled “Advantages of PMDE Compact Package with High Heat Dissipation for Automotive Schottky Barrier Diodes “, can be downloaded from the button below.