Silicon Nitride Substrate

Silicon nitride substrates offer exceptional heat resistance, ultra-high hardness, and fracture toughness, thus exhibiting outstanding mechanical properties under high-frequency vibration or high temperature circumstances. As a result, they are frequently used in industries like aerospace, high-speed rail, new energy vehicles, etc., and are a crucial core heat dissipation material for silicon carbide power modules (SiC MOSFET) and insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBT).

Tags Silicon Nitride Substrate

Aluminum nitride substrate, aluminum oxide substrate, and silicon nitride substrate are the most commonly used. Silicon nitride ceramics outperform alumina and aluminum nitride in terms of mechanical characteristics; they also have higher thermal conductivity, great thermal radiation, and thermal cycle resistance. Using silicon nitride ceramics as the substrate can improve the deflection, anti-break strength, thermal shock resistance, and thermal conductivity of the circuit board, thereby ensuring the operational dependability of high-power modules. Due to its superior performance, silicon nitride is an excellent substrate material for electronic packaging.

Excellent Performance of Silicon Nitride Substrates

(1) High strength and fracture toughness at high temperatures;

(2) Extremely high chemical corrosion resistance and excellent wear resistance;

(3) Devices using silicon nitride ceramic substrates can further reduce their size;

(4) High heat dissipation coefficient, a thermal expansion coefficient that matches the chip, and exceptionally high thermal shock resistance.

Silicon Nitride Substrate Specification

Properties and Features of Silicon Nitride Substrates

Mechanical Properties

Superior mechanical characteristics of silicon nitride substrates include strength and high fracture toughness on par with those of metal. Because of its great mechanical strength, silicon nitride substrates can resist mechanical loads and impacts, which qualifies them for demanding uses in bearings and structural components.

Thermal Properties

The great heat conductivity of silicon nitride substrates is one of its main characteristics; it is much greater than that of conventional ceramics like alumina. In electrical devices and high-temperature applications, this feature makes effective heat dissipation and thermal control possible.

Electrical Characteristics

Applications where electrical insulation is critical need silicon nitride substrates' excellent electrical insulating qualities. Their heat conductivity paired with this characteristic makes them perfect substrates for semiconductor and high-power electronics.

Chemical and Environmental Resistance

Excellent resistance at high temperatures to oxidation and chemical corrosion is shown by silicon nitride substrates. Together with their mechanical robustness, this resistance qualifies them for use in the chemical processing, automotive, and aerospace sectors under demanding working environments.

Usages of Silicon Nitride Substrates

semiconductor and electronics industry

Silicon nitride substrates find use in the electronics sector as components in semiconductor production equipment and as substrates for deposition procedures. They are perfect for preserving steady process conditions in semiconductor manufacture because of their great purity and outstanding thermal characteristics.

Auto Industry

Silicon nitride substrates find growing use in automotive applications, especially in engine parts like bearings and turbochargers. Their outstanding thermal shock resistance and mechanical strength help to increase engine dependability and performance in harsh environments.

Aircraft and Defense Uses

Silicon nitride substrates find vital utility in the aerospace and military industries, where they are used in parts for radar systems, rocket engines, and gas turbines. Because of their low weight, excellent mechanical strength, and heat shock resistance, they are very useful in guaranteeing dependable performance in aeronautical uses.

Sizi and Form

Sizing

The following sizes are among the many available for silicon nitride substrates:

Thickness: The particular application requirements determine how thick silicon nitride substrates should be. Several hundred microns to several millimeters are common thicknesses. Thicker substrates provide higher mechanical strength and endurance; thinner substrates are often employed in situations that need lightweight components or are space-constrained.

Size of the equipment they are installed on and the components they support determine how long and wide silicon nitride substrates are typically made. Depending on the need, standard sizes could be a few millimeters to tens of centimeters or even bigger.

Shape

Many forms of silicon nitride substrates are offered to suit various application requirements:

Rectangular: Rectangular silicon nitride substrates are the most often seen form. Application areas for them are many and include semiconductor production equipment, electronic substrates, and structural components. Easily handled, rectangular substrates work with common processing procedures.

Applications requiring uniform component mounting around a central axis or where rotational symmetry is beneficial often employ circular silicon nitride substrates. They find use in bearings, seals, and high-precision components where rotational properties and consistent stress distribution are essential.

unique Forms: Silicon nitride substrates may be produced into unique forms to satisfy certain design criteria in addition to the usual rectangular and circular forms. These might be hexagons, octagons, or irregular forms to suit the particular application requirements of specialised sectors like renewable energy, biomedical, and aerospace.

IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor)

IGBT is the most advanced power electronic equipment for converting and controlling power. It has a number of advantages, including high input impedance, low driving power, fast switching speed, high operating frequency, reduced saturation voltage, large safe operating area, and resistance to high voltage and large current, etc. As a result, it is known as the "CPU" of modern industrial converter devices and is widely employed in strategic industries such as rail transit, aerospace, new energy vehicles, wind power, and defense industry. The heat produced by the IGBT module is mostly transferred through the DBC silicon nitride ceramic substrate to the casing and then dissipated. Consequently, in the field of power electronics, DBC silicon nitride plate is an indispensable key material for power module packaging.

SiC MOSFET (Silicon Carbide Power Module)

SiC MOSFET offers low conduction loss and switching loss when compared to traditional silicon-based IGBT modules. It is used in vehicle charging systems and power conversion systems, where it can effectively reduce switching loss, increase the limit operating temperature, and improve system efficiency.

Silicon nitride substrates possess numerous excellent properties, including high hardness, high strength, low thermal expansion coefficient, small high-temperature creep, great oxidation resistance, good hot corrosion performance, and low friction coefficient. They are the ceramic substrate material with the best overall performance.

Silicon nitride ceramics have two crystal forms: α-Si3N4 and β-Si3N4. The α phase is unstable, and is easily converted into stable β phase at high temperatures. In general, the β phase content of silicon nitride ceramics with high thermal conductivity is larger than 40%. With the excellent properties of silicon nitride ceramics, AMB silicon nitride substrates provide the benefits of high-temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, oxidation resistance, and ultra-high power density.

● AMB silicon nitride substrate has high thermal conductivity;

AMB silicon nitride substrate has a high thermal conductivity of above 90W/m.K, a copper layer thickness up to 800μm, and a high heat capacity and heat transfer. As a result, AMB silicon nitride substrates are the preferred substrate material for high-voltage DC transmissions, traction systems, automobiles, wind turbines, and other devices that demand high reliability, heat dissipation, and partial discharge.

Additionally, active metal brazing technology can weld very thick copper metal (thickness up to 0.8mm) to relatively thin silicon nitride ceramics. Hence, it has a high current carrying capacity and excellent heat transfer capabilities.

● AMB silicon nitride substrate has low thermal expansion coefficient.

Silicon nitride ceramics have a low thermal expansion coefficient (2.4ppm/K) that is similar to silicon chips (4ppm/K), and they provide good thermal matching. Therefore, AMB silicon nitride substrate is well-suited for reliable packaging of bare chips. The packaged components are not susceptible to failure throughout the product's lifetime.

The primary benefit of AMB is that it is more suitable for applications requiring high reliability, such as automotive grade.

AMB is developed on the basis of DBC technology. Compared to conventional DBC substrates, ceramic substrates prepared by AMB process not only have higher thermal conductivity and superior copper layer adhesion, but also have lower thermal resistance and greater dependability.

AMB substrates are increasingly employed in high-power device control modules in wind energy, photovoltaics, and electric automobiles. In third-generation semiconductors, in order to achieve high-density three-dimensional modular packaging of high-power electronic devices, DBC substrate cannot meet the application requirements of high frequency, high temperature, and high power for SiC-based or GaN-based third-generation semiconductor devices, whereas AMB substrate is the preferred module packaging material.