Patent ID: 7737551

Claim:
A semiconductor power module comprising at least one field effect power semiconductor chip and a plurality of fail-safe, small-area SiC power diodes connected in parallel and disposed within a housing frame, wherein the function of a large-area SiC power diode chip which is susceptible to failure is distributed over the small-area, parallel-connected SiC power diodes in such a way that total area of active SiC diode areas corresponds to an area of a large-area non-fail-safe SiC power diode chip, wherein the small-area, parallel-connected SiC power diodes are arranged in rows and columns alongside one another, with one looped-through bonding wire in each row connecting electrodes on upper faces of the SiC power diode chips in one row, respectively and with a common looped-through bonding wire joining the bonding wires of the rows together along a column and connecting them directly, without any intervening electrodes, to a contact pad area of a flat conductor that passes through the housing frame.