Substitution of Solid Encapsulation Materials by

Dielectric Fluid in Power Modules: Potentialities

and Challenges
Rabih Khazaka*1,2, Chencho Dorji1, Rachelle Hanna1, Olivier Lesaint1, Yvan Avenas1, Stephane Azzopardi2
1 Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, G2Elab, 38000 Grenoble, France
2 Safran SA, Safran Tech, Electronic and electric systems department, Chateaufort, France
* [email protected]

Abstract—In conventional power modules, the solid voltage is usually low which can allow the use of phase
insulating material (epoxy, silicone gel) that covers the top of the changing liquids to achieve the cooling.
devices, does not efficiently contribute to the heat extraction.
Moreover, thermal conducting paths are formed by For high voltage applications, the evaporation of liquids
heterogeneous layers for electric insulation, causing inevitably can be a real issue since the bubbles can create weak points
high thermal resistance. As an alternative, the direct cooling of from electric point of view. For liquid single phase cooling,
the devices using dielectric liquids in forced convection can pave the balance between electric insulation and thermal-hydraulic
the road toward a new class of high performance power properties of the coolant is an important research topic. The
modules. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the potentialities aim of this paper is to evaluate the potentialities of using
of using flowing dielectric liquids as encapsulating material in forced convection immersion cooling with single phase
order to ensure the direct cooling of the devices as well as the
electric insulation. The thermal interest of the solution is dielectric liquids as encapsulation material in order to ensure
validated using thermal-hydraulic simulations while the the direct cooling as well as the electric insulation in high
dielectric properties of various liquids are evaluated voltage power modules. The paper is organized as follow: in
experimentally over a wide temperature range. Results show section II, a brief review on the dielectric properties of liquids
that by selecting package structure allowing a high exchange in motion is outlined. Section III presents the motivation for
area between the top device interconnection and the dielectric the selected liquids used in this study, experimental techniques
fluid, a reduction by more than 40% of the junction to fluid and modeling methods. Results are illustrated and discussed
thermal resistance can be achieved. Moreover, based on the in section IV. Finally, main conclusions and perspectives are
combination of the variation of the dielectric properties of
mentioned in section V.
liquids in motion issued from the literature and the measured
dielectric properties (relative permittivity, electrical II. LITTERATURE REVIEW REGARDING DIELECTRIC PROPERTIES
conductivity, breakdown voltage) of the dielectric fluids, the
OF LIQUIDS IN MOTION
three evaluated candidates show their ability to insure a good
insulation at temperature up to 175 °C for high voltage The impact of liquid flow rate on dielectric properties,
applications. mainly breakdown voltage and streaming electrification, has
Keywords—Encapsulation, dielectric fluid cooling, power garnered significant attention in transformer insulation
module, dielectric properties, thermal-hydraulic simulation systems. It was shown that the electrical conductivity of the
flowing liquid increases with the velocity and significant
I. INTRODUCTION . change is observed at a velocity level that corresponds to the
Electrification is a key technology to decarbonize society, transition from laminar to turbulent flux [4]. In fact, the ionic
and push toward increasing the power density in electrical charges generated from the dissociation of impurities in the
systems mainly for electric transportation. In order to reduce liquid create a double layer slightly attached to the insulating
the thermal resistance and increase the power density of power solid at the interface with the liquid. The removal of charges
modules used for energy conversion, the management of the at interfaces is closely linked to the speed of the fluid and the
dissipated heat in power semiconductor devices requires the transition from laminar to turbulent mode is often associated
development of new packaging materials, new structures as with an increase in charges in the liquid.
well as new cooling technologies. In conventional power The variation of the dielectric breakdown voltage as
modules, the solid insulating material (epoxy, silicone gel) function of the flow rate for various voltage waveforms and
that covers the top of the devices, does not efficiently various liquids is summarized in Fig 1 [5-8]. For liquid
contribute to the heat extraction. Moreover, heterogeneous flowing at low velocity (<10 cm/s) and high velocity (>50
layers with low thermal conductivity are used to insure the cm/s), the breakdown voltage in both DC and AC increases
electric insulation and a good thermal contact with the cooling compared to stationary liquid, while a decrease is observed in
system [1]. These layers are included in the thermal the intermediate velocity range (10 to 50 cm/s). The first
conducting paths causing inevitably high thermal resistance. increase, in the mean breakdown voltage for liquid velocity up
Immersion cooling is one of the effective thermal to 10 cm/s, can probably be attributed to the sweeping action
management methods because it allows removing thermal of the flow on particles or emitted charges. The fact that both
interfaces. To achieve cooling, electronic devices are AC and DC means fall together above 10 cm/s coincides with
immersed in a dielectric fluid or coolant with high thermal the known initiation of charge production in the circulation
conductivity but very low electrical conductivity. Immersion system [4,5]. This space charge assists the injected charge in
cooling has been widely used to cool down heating sources reducing breakdown strength by locally enhancing the electric
like data centers [2] and servers [3]. For these applications, the field and increasing electro-hydrodynamic turbulence. The
turbulence induces stronger vortices in the liquids and regions

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 of lower pressure will be created and will nucleate breakdown. mbar at 180°C), high breakdown strength in uniform field
At high velocity, it can be assumed that the turbulence due to (higher than 30 kV/mm @ 300°C), excellent partial discharge
electro-hydrodynamic motion which provides possible suppression properties and the low cost.
breakdown nucleation regions at the centers of the vortices is
washed out of the gap before being fully developed. It can also Powersil fluid TR50 is a silicone oil suitable for high
be assumed that the charges introduced by injection are being temperature application (200°C). Generally, silicone oils are
swept out of the gap before reaching the other electrode. It’s expensive compared to hydrocarbon and esters oils. However,
important to note that in the worst case scenario, the they present good chemical inertness (with a close chemistry
breakdown voltage exceeds 50% of the stationary measured to conventionally used silicone gel), high oxidation stability,
value, and no modification of the breakdown voltage was good electrical properties and are nonflammable.
observed under impulse voltages. B. Thermal-hydraulic simulations
The potential thermal gain that can be achieved by
replacing silicone gel by flowing dielectric liquid is estimated
using thermal-hydraulic simulations. Power modules using
metal plate (clip) as top device interconnection are evaluated
using direct fluid cooling on the top side in addition to the
conventional cooling on the bottom side via a direct cooling
of the heat sink. Results are compared to the conventional
technique used for silicone gel insulated module. 3D
schematic views of the evaluated configurations, the cross
section view of the configuration 3 as well as the materials
Fig. 1 Summary of the breakdown voltage as function of liquid velocity properties used for the assembly are presented in Fig. 2.
tested under various conditions mentionned in the legend. Data are extracted
from ref. [5-8]. Mobil jet oil II is used as a liquid coolant and the inlet fluid
temperature is fixed to 27 °C. According to the datasheet, the
III. MATERIALS, EXPERIMENTAL TECHINIQUES AND MODELING kinematic viscosity, density, specific capacity and thermal
METHOD
conductivity are 35 mm2/s, 1kg/l, 1.9 kJ.kg-1.°C-1 and 0.147
A. Motivation for selected fluids W.m-1.K-1 respectively. For the three configurations, the same
For the aeronautic applications, the liquid should ensure flow rate is used. The bottom inlet area is the maintained
the insulation and the cooling of the electronic assemblies. constant (280 mm2) and in the cases where two inlet sections
Hence, several considerations should be carefully addressed. are used (configurations 2 and 3), 50% of the flow rate is
applied on the bottom side and 50% on the top side. The top
The liquid should primarily possess favorable electrical
inlet section for configurations 2 and 3 are respectively 200
properties, including a high breakdown voltage and partial
discharge inception voltage (PDIV), along with low relative
permittivity (to limit the parasitic capacitance) and low to
intermediate conductivity. Additionally, it should exhibit
excellent heat transfer properties, characterized by high
density, thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity to
improve convective heat transfers while maintaining low
viscosity to reduce the required pumping power. Moreover,
the liquid should have high boiling temperature to limit the
bubbles presence near the heating devices, low pour point to
work efficiently at low temperatures, high thermal stability to
avoid the degradation of the electrical and or thermal
properties during the life cycle, low toxicity to avoid human
and environmental safety issues during maintenance as well
as chemical inertness against electronic packaging materials.
Three potential candidates were selected and evaluated in this
paper and their main advantages are listed hereafter: Fig. 2 Schematic 3D view of various evaluated configurations a),
cross section vue of the assembly with extended clip used in configuration
Mobil Jet Oil II is a synthetic ester with additives, formulated 3 b), and properties of the materials used in the assembly c).
to meet the demanding requirements of aircraft-type gas
turbines operating over a wide range of severe operating mm2 and 126 mm2. To reduce the model complexity, some
conditions. The product has a high specific heat in order to assumptions are considered: the free convection, the radiation
ensure good heat transfer from oil-cooled engine parts. In as well as the roughness of the surface of solids are neglected.
extensive laboratory testing and in-flight performance, Mobil In addition, the variation of the fluid and solids properties as
Jet Oil II exhibits excellent bulk oil stability at temperatures function of temperature are not considered. The 3D steady
up to 204°C (3% mass loss after 6.5h@204°C). governing equations for conjugate heat transfer based on
Navier-Stokes equations combined with continuity equation,
Jarytherm® DBT (dibenzyltoluene) is an aromatic energy equation and momentum equations are solved using
hydrocarbon oil suitable for heating under atmospheric ANSYS® Fluent implicit Solver. The turbulent k-ε standard
pressure within the 250°C to 350°C temperature range in a model with enhanced wall treatment is used. The convergence
closed system and is suitable for all processes requiring high criteria for the residual x, y and z direction velocity and the
temperature levels. Main interesting characteristics are the residual of energy equation are set to 10-3 and 10-6
very high boiling point and low vapor pressure (less than 10 respectively.
 C. Experimental technique highlight the interest of the use of dielectric liquids as coolant
To assess the dielectric properties of liquids, ester, silicone from thermal point of view. Additional improvements in the
oil, and aromatic hydrocarbon oil were tested using dielectric pressure drop and the global thermal resistance can be
spectroscopy and dielectric breakdown tests. Dielectric achieved by using optimal extended clip design and flow rate
parameters were characterized in broad frequency range by distribution between the top and the bottom surface. However,
dielectric relaxation spectroscopy using a Novocontrol Alpha- this topic is out of the scope of this paper. The next paragraph
A spectrometer (relative permittivity ε’ and conductivity are will focus on the dielectric properties of the liquids to evaluate
presented in this paper). A specific test cell with two the potentialities of their use as insulating materials.
concentric cylinders electrodes with a gap of 3.75 mm was
used (Fig 3a). Dielectric measurements were run at constant
temperature by taking frequency scans (0.01 Hz to 1 MHz) in
the temperature range between 20°C and 150°C.
Measurements were made in a climatic chamber in air during
the cooling temperature cycle. The amplitude of the AC
applied voltage was set at 1 V.
Breakdown voltages estimations were made using a
Spellman HV DC supply 0-100kV and the voltage increased
continuously with a rate of 1 kV/s until the occurrence of the
breakdown. After breakdown, the high voltage source was
rapidly switched off (after 1 ms) in order to limit the Fig. 4 The variation of the junction temperature as function of the flow
degradation of the liquid. The breakdown voltage was rate using Mobil jet oil II as a coolant for the three evaluated
measured between two copper metallizations (gap about 550 configurations.
µm) on the top of a Si3N4 active metal brazing substrate
(AMB). The substrate was placed in a Teflon vessel and fully B. Dielectric properties
immersed with the tested liquid as shown in Fig 3b. For each In this section, all the measurement are achieved in
liquid, six measurements were taken at 20°C and 175°C. stagnant liquid. The relative permittivity ε’ and the electrical
Moreover, a sample with the substrate covered with silicone conductivity as function of frequency at various temperatures
gel was also tested for comparison. The average breakdown for the Mobil jet oil II are illustrated in Fig 5 a and b
value as well as the lower and higher values are presented. respectively. The ε’ of the liquid shows an increase at low
frequencies and this phenomenon becomes more significant
by increasing the temperature. This is due to the well-known
electrode polarization mechanism that corresponds to the
charge carriers that accumulates at the interface between the
sample and the electrodes. The conductivity shows a plateau
over a wide low frequency range and the value of the plateau
corresponds to the DC conductivity of the liquids. All the
liquids present similar behavior of the ε’ and the conductivity
as function of frequency. The ε’ at 10 kHz (to neglect the
impact of electrode polarization and to be in agreement with
the switching frequency of wide band gap devices) and the
Fig. 3 Open test cell used for dielectric spectroscopy a) and AMB substrate extracted DC conductivity of the three evaluated liquid are
immersed in dielectric liquid for breakdown measurements b).
illustrated in Fig 5 c and d respectively.
IV. RESULTS ANS DISCUSSIONS
A. Thermal performance based on thermohydraulic
simulations
The variation of the junction temperature as function of the
flow rate for the three evaluated configurations is illustrated in
Fig 4. Based on thermo-fluidic simulations under a constant
flow rate (4 l/min), the global thermal resistance can be
reduced by about 20% by passing from configuration 1 to
configuration 2 (cf Fig. 2). The main difference is that the
silicone gel used as encapsulation material in configuration 1
is replaced by a flowing dielectric liquid in an inlet area of 200
mm2. In the latter case, 50% of the flow rate is applied on the
bottom side and 50% on the top side. In addition to the thermal
resistance reduction the pressure drop is also reduced. By
making some additional adjustments on the configuration 2 Fig. 5 Relative permittivity a) and electrical conductivity b) for Mobil jet
like the use of an extended clip formed of a metal clip, a small oil II as function of frequency at various temperatures. Variation of ε’
at 10kHz c) and the extracted DC conductivity d) as function of
heat sink instead of a metal plate (high fluid to solid contact temperature for the three tested fluids .
area) and the reduction of the top inlet area, the reduction of
the global thermal resistance can exceed 40%. These results
 By increasing the temperature, ε’ values at high V. CONCLUSION
frequencies show a continuous decrease related to the Dielectric measurements through a wide temperature
reduction of the density of the liquid and to the intervention of range combined with the potential impact of liquid velocity on
complex mechanisms likely to decrease polarizability with DC breakdown voltage confirm the ability of dielectric liquids
temperature [9,10]. In the temperature range between 25°C to be used for direct cooling of high voltage power modules.
and 150°C, depending on the liquid, the conductivity shows Thermo-hydraulic simulations show that a significant
an increase of about two to three orders of magnitude. This reduction in the global thermal resistance (>40%) can be
can be explained by the increase of the ionic charges density achieved using suitable design. The cost induced by using this
(dissociation of impurities molecules) and their mobility [10]. solution can be very limited for applications where the fluid
DC breakdown voltage (Vbr) performed on metallized cooling system already exists like the case of smart electric
substrates immersed in liquids or encapsulated with silicone machine. However, other challenges related to the aging of the
gel is presented in Fig 6. The mean Vbr value is considered liquids at high temperature (175°C) in real configuration, the
and the lower and higher values represent the edges of the red interaction between the liquid and power module assembly
lines. The mean Vbr values of liquids are comparable to materials as well as the presence or the creation of the bubbles
silicone gel ones. The decrease of the breakdown voltage of in the liquid flows during operation should be addressed in the
liquids by increasing the temperature from 20°C up to 175°C future.
is less than 20%. The lowest Vbr value of about 12 kV is
obtained for silicone oil at 175°C. We notice that in these test ACKNOWLEDGMENT
samples, the field reinforcement at the triple point (interface Authors would like to thank the “France Relance” for the
between the metallization edge, the ceramic and the financial support.
encapsulant) is present. Based on these results and by
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Fig. 7 Five repetitive breakdown voltage on the same gap between two
electrodes for each of the dielectric liquids and for silicone gel. Crack
formation (pointed by arrow) on the ceramic surface after the first
breakdown.