Superior Surface-Insulated Polymers with Low Leakage Current Enabled by Tailored Coatings Deposited with Colliding Plasma Jets

Abstract

Insufficient surface insulation margin is the primary challenge for a 10 kV plus high-voltage semiconductor module. Surface charge accumulation and electric field distortion are the leading causes of surface insulation failure. Power modules restrict leakage loss, so only insulation dielectrics with low surface conductivity can be used. However, low conductivity, accumulated charge dissipation, and distorted electric field optimization have always been contradictory. A potential barrier increase and electron affinity decrease are both less coupled approaches with conductivity, which may have the potential for reducing surface charge accumulation. Here, surface charge accumulation inhibition and local electric field optimization were synchronously realized by tailored coating deposition with colliding plasma jets. This novelty approach leads to a finer interfacial modification of the triple junction and its nearby interfaces. The high-barrier and low-affinity coatings deposited by colliding plasma jets suppress charge injection (electrode–polymer interface) and promote charge dissipation (gas–polymer interface), respectively. At the same time, the small-area semiconductor deposited at the triple junction relieves the distortion of the electric field. In the end, while maintaining a low leakage current, the surface flashover voltages of polytetrafluoroethylene, polyimide, and epoxy packaging polymers are significantly increased by 69.7, 43.2, and 39.6%, respectively. Notably, the normalized leakage loss is less than 3/10,000 of the commercially available SiC module, which vastly differs from the surface insulation improvement strategy that blindly increases surface conductivity. This tailored coating modification strategy provides a new idea for dielectric research. It has reasonable practicability due to fast, cheap, and environmentally friendly colliding plasma jets.