Why packaging is the next frontier in power design innovation

Compared to just a decade ago, today’s vehicles deliver a fundamentally different experience. Drivers benefit from smoother acceleration, enhanced safety through advanced driver assistance systems, seamless over-the-air feature updates, and longer battery range in electric vehicles.

Each of these advancements is enabled by the addition of electrical components onto a circuit board. But to do so, engineers must integrate more power, intelligence and functionality into a tightly constrained space.

This challenge goes beyond the automotive industry. Across data centers, industrial systems and consumer electronics, designers face the same fundamental problem: making power systems deliver more capability without growing larger. And that requires smarter packaging with power modules.

Why packaging matters in modern power systems

Packaging connects semiconductor chips to the surrounding power circuitry, managing heat, controlling electrical behavior, and protecting sensitive electronics. It plays a fundamental role in maintaining electrical performance without introducing detrimental effects such as noise or poor electrical signal quality.

As power levels increase and systems include more intelligence, the role of packaging becomes more critical. High voltages must operate safely alongside low-voltage control circuits (the sensitive electronics that monitor and regulate system performance). Heat must dissipate efficiently within tight enclosures. And components must perform reliably under sustained electrical and thermal stress.

To accommodate this, design engineers are looking to power modules. Power modules are plug-and-play building blocks in electronic design. They integrate multiple electronic components into a single package.

“Power modules are the future,” said Kannan Soundarapandian, vice president and general manager of high-voltage products at TI. “They shrink what used to be a transformer and all of the elements on the board into one small package. Engineers can create a power module instead of putting multiple components on the same board to get to market faster.”

In order to implement power modules into designs, TI engineers are looking at device packaging, which defines how energy flows, how heat dissipates, and how the module performs over its lifetime. As voltages increase to support higher power levels and faster performance, safely separating high-voltage power components and low-voltage control circuits becomes essential. 

How power modules enable safer systems

While simultaneously operating at higher voltages to deliver greater performance and efficiency, power systems must also protect the low-voltage control circuits that monitor and regulate system behavior. This protection, known as isolation, is implemented on packaging and allows energy to move safely while preventing dangerous electrical interference.

“Packaging is absolutely key,” Kannan said. “In isolated modules, packaging provides the controlled environment necessary for miniaturized components to behave the way they were designed. Given the strength of the electrical fields that these systems must tolerate over a lifetime, if that environment is not perfectly calibrated, they will fail.”

Modern power modules must contain high electric fields within millimeters of one another while maintaining thermal stability and long-term reliability. But traditional approaches to isolation require greater physical spacing and separate isolation components, which increase solution size and limit integration.

TI’s IsoShield™ integrated packaging technology combines isolation and power transfer in one compact module structure. Rather than relying on bulky, discrete components, IsoShield technology enables compact, high-voltage isolation that reduces size while strengthening long-term reliability.

How power modules enable more powerful systems

Magnetic components on circuit boards create a similar constraint, consuming significant space and restricting system design flexibility.

TI power modules integrate inductors and capacitors to create efficient DC/DC conversion. Many modules stack the inductor directly on top of the package, creating a very small form factor.

TI’s proprietary MagPack™ packaging technology takes integration to the next level by manufacturing the magnetic components and embedding them directly into the package.

For electric vehicles, data centers and personal electronics, these benefits translate into faster charging, a more resilient data infrastructure and greater functionality, respectively, all within the same physical space.

These advances mark only the beginning of power design development.

What next-generation power modules will bring

As the integration of components increases further, IsoShield and MagPack packaging technologies will allow power modules to operate with higher power density, improved thermal performance and more reliable high-voltage operation.

“The biggest advantage from power modules is reliability,” Kannan said. “One package can integrate multiple components that have been statistically tested for performance and safety, which applies at the system level. This is why I think these modules are the future.”

It all culminates in a seamless experience that most people don’t even think about, whether it’s in their vehicles or the data centers powering their searches.

Power modules are introducing unprecedented possibilities for power design – and it starts with packaging.