Purpose, potential and realization of chip-attached micro-pin fin heat sinks

This work presents the design process of an actively cooled power semiconductor package that makes use of a structured chip contact that is preferably produced by Selective Laser Melting (SLM). The concept has a drastically reduced amount of material transitions within the cooling path and is designed for low thermo-mechanical stress. It is shown how to design and build the geometry of the integrated heat sink in such a way that plastic deformation of the applied materials is kept as low as possible. The comparison with state-of-the-art actively cooled power modules shows that a similar or even smaller thermal resistance can be achieved in a much smaller volume. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.