Heat transfer enhancement in MOSFET mounted on different FR4 substrates by thermal transient measurement

Miniaturization of electronic package leads to high heat density and heat accumulation in electronics device, resulting in short life time and premature failure of the device. Junction temperature and thermal resistance are the critical parameters that determine the thermal management and reliability in electronics cooling. Metal oxide field effect transistor (MOSFET) is an important semiconductor device for light emitting diode-integrated circuit (LED IC) driver application, and thermal management in MOSFET is a major challenge. In this study, investigations on thermal performance of MOSFET are performed for evaluating the junction temperature and thermal resistance. Suitable modifications in FR4 substrates are proposed by introducing thermal vias and copper layer coating to improve the thermal performance of MOSFET. Experiments are conducted using thermal transient tester (T3ster) at 2.0 A input current and ambient temperature varying from 25 ℃to 75 °C. The thermal parameters are measured for three proposed designs: FR4 with circular thermal vias, FR4 with single strip of copper layer and embedded vias, and FR4 with I-shaped copper layer, and compared with that of plain FR4 substrate. From the experimental results, FR4_I-shaped shows promising results by 33.71% reduction in junction temperature and 54.19% reduction in thermal resistance. For elevated temperature, the relative increases in junction temperature and thermal resistance are lower for FR4_I-shaped than those for other substrates considered. The introduction of thermal vias and copper layer plays a significant role in thermal performance.