Thermal Management and Electromagnetic Analysis for GaN Devices Packaging on DBC Substrate

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are often used to mount gallium nitride transistors, as they offer good electrical performance. However, their thermal conductivity is not as good as with ceramic substrates. In this letter, we compare (experimentally and by simulation) both the electrical and thermal performances of GaN transistor mounted on PCBs and ceramic substrates, and we show that with a proper layout, the ceramic substrates can offer both a very good thermal management (thermal resistance four times lower than with PCB) and suitable electrical performance (parasitic inductances of 1-2 nH).