Market demand for smaller and more functional electronic devices has driven the development of semiconductor devices, including semiconductor power packages and entire systems disposed on a chip. Some electronic devices, such as cellular telephones, employ a variety of design-specific electronic components. Other electronic devices, such as power packages utilized in the automotive industry, employ one or more logic chips connected to a leadframe and one or more power transistors connected to the leadframe and the logic chip(s). The space available inside the electronic devices is limited, particularly as the electronic devices are made smaller.
Dielectric or insulating materials having good thermal and mechanical characteristics are typically used within the electronic devices. The dielectric or insulating materials are typically structured using an encapsulation procedure due to the high processing temperatures and/or processing pressures for the materials. Typically, the insulating or dielectric structures are planar or surface-conformal, which may provide inadequate isolation at some points within the electronic devices, such as at chip edges.
For these and other reasons, there is a need for the present invention.