Study of silicon chip soldering in high-power transistor housing

We experimentally assessed the effect of outer housing layer materials and back side chip metallization. For lead-silver soldering of silicon chips, the best housing is that with a nickel outer layer rather than with a gold-plated one, because the resultant thermal resistance is lower and the absence of gold makes the technology cheaper. We obtained a 0.6 K/W thermal resistance for a 24 mm2 chip area.