Did You Miss IWIPP?

If you were snoozing, you just missed the second International Workshop on Integrated Packaging. The Friday/Saturday event held July 14 and 15, in Waltham, Massachusetts, brought together many impressive members of the power electronics packaging community with equally impressive information. There were 46 attendees representing 11 countries with 20 papers presented.

The Workshop was launched Friday morning with 19 participants in a 2-part short course on "Power Electronics Packaging - A Systems Perspective." The course was presented by the Workshop Chairman, Dr. Doug Hopkins, State University of New York at Buffalo, and past Chairman, Dr. Krishna Shenai, University of Illinois at Chicago. They covered the latest in packaging technologies for packaging levels 1 through 3. Dr. Shenai presented recent results in modeling that show how internal charge flows in IGBTs and MOSFETs change due to packaging parameters.

Friday afternoon session, chaired by the workshop's Technical Chairman, Dr. Guo-Quan Lu offered four papers that summarized the breadth of the power-packaging field. The first paper reviewed results of the PSMA report on the "Status of Power Electronics Packaging" for power supplies (see www.PSMA.Com for information about the report). This was followed by a description for an advanced packaging approach developed at the GE Center for Research and Development. The approach eliminates wire bonds to produce an ultra-low inductance package. Dr. Venkataramanan from the University of Wisconsin provided a high level view of using "bricks and buses" to modularize power. The last paper presented by Dr. Shenai gave the state-of-the-art in SiC devices by describing the characteristics of a 100V, 1A PIN diode and a 50V, 0.5A JFET as benchmarked in a dc-dc converter.

Friday evening was filled with a Banquet and Rap session. Mr. Terry Ericsen from the Office of Naval Research presented the banquet address on the US Government's needs in future power electronic systems and described some of the programs underway specific to the Navy. This led directly into the Rap session chaired by Dr. Fred Barlow. The discussion was brisk and covered several topics. The most notable was the impact of recent energy deregulation in the US and the sharply urgent elevation of 'energy production, conditioning and management' as a primary focus in the world. Considerable discussion ensued on the affect on power electronics technology including packaging.

Saturday came with a full day of 16 papers. The day was divided between materials, packaging techniques and applications. A summary of paper titles and abstracts can still be viewed at www.IEEE.Org/conferences/IWIPP. An informative luncheon featured Mr. Mike Shaw who presented a review of the technology developments at Rockwell Science Center. The advancements in high temperature electronics is being pushed by advances in SiC devices which continue to show great promise. The audience was provided many interesting details that will shape much of the future in power electronics packaging. For a copy of the Workshop proceedings contact the IEEE at www.IEEE.Org or calling 800-678-IEEE. Ask for proceedings 00EX426.

Further Facts

A poll was taken of the 40 luncheon attendees regarding the dates for a future Workshop. Four did not want the summer, 19 preferred the summer and the remaining did not care. No one wanted the workshop to extend into the weekend, but all preferred that the workshop be adjacent to a weekend (i.e. on a Monday/Tuesday or Thursday/Friday). Though a spouse program was heavily advertised, only one person registered and nearly no spouses or guests accompanied attendees.

The attendees came from the following countries: Canada-2, France, Hungary, Ireland, Japan-2, Netherlands, ROC, Spain-2, Sweden, UK, USA (AR, CA-2, CO, MA-7, MN, NH-4, NY-5, OH-3, TX-3, VA-4, WI).

--submitted by Doug Hopkins