1. Purpose of the gate
The discrete package or power module design, with its substrate, die attach, interconnect and cooling path, is released with its assembly process, so that qualification lots can be built in the target package.
Qualification of a power device only means something in the package the customer will use. Die attach, top-side interconnect, encapsulation and the thermal path decide how the device behaves under power cycling, temperature cycling and humidity, and a change of package after qualification usually means repeating it. This gate therefore fixes the package before the qualification lots are built, instead of after the device has been qualified.
The gate also freezes the package and module platform, the discrete packages and module formats the device will be offered in. Customers design around it: once they lay out their inverters around a module's footprint, stray inductance, thermal path and mounting, changing them is a new design for the customer as much as for the supplier. Freezing it here means the qualification lots, the evaluation boards and the first customer layouts all use the platform that will be sold. The die attach and top-side interconnect, and the module substrate and cooling interface, stay open until Module qualified, where the module qualification results justify them.
The review checks that the design meets its thermal, electrical and stray inductance targets on the data from characterisation, that the assembly process is specified well enough to build qualification lots that represent production, and that the qualification build plan names the package and module tests that follow device qualification.
The gate sits at the end of the stage Package & Module Development and belongs to the engineering track. In one line: the package or module design and its assembly process are released, with a first module datasheet, so evaluation boards and qualification lots can be built in the target package.
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