Active solid-state devices (e.g. – transistors – solid-state diode – Housing or package – With contact or lead
Reexamination Certificate
2002-03-27
2004-09-21
Flynn, Nathan J. (Department: 2826)
Active solid-state devices (e.g., transistors, solid-state diode
Housing or package
With contact or lead
C257S692000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06794742
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is applicable to a semiconductor device and more particularly, to a semiconductor device as a module including a transistor for constituting an inverter and an integrated circuit for controlling the transistor, for example.
2. Description of the Background Art
FIG. 24
is a circuit diagram exemplifying the structure of a power module
501
for driving inverter (hereinafter referred to simply as “inverter module”) in the background art. The inverter module
501
includes six insulated gate bipolar transistors (hereinafter referred to simply as “transistor”) constituting an inverter and switching control circuits HVIC
1
, HVIC
2
, HVIC
3
, LVIC. The switchings of the three out of the six transistors arranged on the side of upper arms are controlled by the switching control circuits HVIC
1
, HVIC
2
and HVIC
3
. The switchings of the three arranged on the side of lower arms are controlled by the switching control circuit LVIC.
FIG. 25
is an outline view illustrating arrangement of pins of the inverter module
501
. In
FIG. 25
, the pins are respectively designated in conformity with the terminals illustrated in FIG.
24
. Pins
502
d
,
502
f
are arranged on one side and pins
502
b
are arranged on the other side. The pins
502
d
are connected to a control circuit not shown, and the pins
502
b
are connected to a load and power source not shown. The pins
502
f
are not required to have connection to any one of the control circuit, load or power source. Rather, each pin
502
f
serves as an intermediary for connection in the inverter module. The example of this configuration is introduced in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-138343, for example.
A bootstrap voltage is applied across each bootstrap input end V
B
and load side output end V
S
of the switching control circuits HVIC
1
, HVIC
2
and HVIC
3
. The bootstrap voltage is set to be 600 bolts, for example. As a result, terminals V
UFB
, V
UFS
, V
VFB
, V
VFS
, V
WFB
and V
WFS
each connected to the bootstrap input end V
B
or the load side output end V
S
also receive voltage of about 600 volts applied thereto. In contrast, each of the other terminals receives voltage that is on the order, at most, of 15 volts.
Therefore, creepage distance between each of the terminals V
UFB
, V
UFS
, V
VFB
, V
VFS
, V
WFB
, V
WFS
and each of the other terminals should be increased in terms of insulation. In view of this, the inverter module
501
includes recessed portions
503
provided between each of the terminals V
UFB
, V
UFS
, V
VFB
, V
VFS
, V
WFB
, V
WFS
and each of the other terminals.
However, a pair of the terminals V
UFB
, V
UFS
, a pair of terminals V
VFB
, V
VFS
, a pair of terminals V
WFB
, V
WFS
and the other terminals are alternately arranged, thereby requiring a large number of recessed portions
503
. This is one of the obstacles to downsizing.
When the inverter module
501
is mounted on a substrate, further, an interconnection pattern receiving a relatively high voltage and an interconnection pattern receiving a relatively low voltage are likely to be mixed on the substrate. This may result in the undesirable increase in inductance that is parasitic on the interconnection pattern.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A first aspect of the present invention is directed to an inverter module comprising a plurality of terminals arranged along a first direction at a predetermined terminal pitch and the plurality of terminals form a plurality of rows. In the inverter module according to the first aspect, the plurality of terminals include at least one load side output terminal, the plurality of terminals include at least one high-potential side control input terminal and at least one low-potential side control input terminal, each of the at least one load side output terminal is bent to extend toward a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, and both the at least one high-potential side control input terminal and the at least one low-potential side control input terminal satisfy at least either one of first and second conditions. The first condition requires bending and extending toward a third direction opposite to the second direction and the second condition requires having distance of three times the terminal pitch or more from the at least one load side output terminal.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the inverter module according to the first aspect, both the at least one high-potential side control input terminal and the at least one low-potential side control input terminal satisfy the first condition.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the inverter module according to the first aspect, the at least one high-potential side control input terminal includes a plurality of high-potential side control input terminals, and each of the plurality of high-potential side control input terminals satisfies the first condition.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the inverter module according to the first aspect, the at least one low-potential side control input terminal includes a plurality of low-potential side control input terminals, and each of the plurality of low-potential side control input terminals satisfies the second condition.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the inverter module according to the first aspect, the at least one load side output terminal includes a plurality of load side output terminals.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the inverter module according to the first aspect, the plurality of terminals further include at least one bootstrap input terminal that is bent to extend toward a direction orthogonal to the first direction, and both the at least one high-potential side control input terminal and the at least one low-potential side control input terminal satisfy at least either one of third and fourth conditions as follows. The third condition requires bending and extending toward a direction opposite to the direction toward which the at least one bootstrap input terminal is bent to extend and the fourth condition requires having distance of three times the terminal pitch or more from the at least one bootstrap input terminal.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the inverter module according to the sixth aspect, both the at least one high-potential side control input terminal and the at least one low-potential side control input terminal satisfy the third condition.
According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the inverter module according to the sixth aspect, the at least one bootstrap input terminal includes a plurality of bootstrap input terminals.
According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the inverter module according to the sixth aspect, the at least one high-potential side control input terminal includes a plurality of high-potential side control input terminals, and each of the plurality of high-potential side control input terminals satisfies the third condition.
According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the inverter module according to the first aspect, the plurality of terminals further include at least one high-potential side control output terminal arranged between the at least one low-potential side control input terminal and the at least one load side output terminal, and a tip of the at least one high-potential side control output terminal is cut to a length shorter than tips of both the at least one high-potential side control input terminal and the at least one low-potential side control input terminal.
According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, in the inverter module according to the tenth aspect, the at least one low-potential side control input terminal includes a plurality of low-potential side control input terminals, and each of the plurality of low-potential side control input terminals satisfies the second condition.
According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, the invert
Iwagami Toru
Kawafuji Hisashi
Flynn Nathan J.
Mitsubishi Denki & Kabushiki Kaisha
Oblon & Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C.
Quinto Kevin
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