Source: {"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"}

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor apparatus, and, more particularly, to a semiconductor apparatus including input signal terminals provided for each electrode so that a control signal is applied to a plurality of semiconductor apparatuses connected in parallel with each other.
2. Description of the Prior Art
This kind of semiconductor apparatus comprises a semiconductor power module. By way of an example, such semiconductor power module will be described in the following.
FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a conventional semiconductor power module. The power module 1 contains two transistor devices therein. A common collector-emitter electrode terminal 2, an emitter electrode terminal 3 and a collector electrode terminal 4 are provided, as main electrode terminals, on the upper surface of the power module 1. An input signal terminal comprises a base signal terminal 5 and emitter signal terminal 6 for one transistor device, and a base signal terminal 8 and an emitter signal terminal 7 for the other transistor device, as shown in FIG. 1. A single input signal terminal is provided for each electrode.
In general, a plurality of semiconductor power modules have been often used in a parallel connected manner so that the plurality of semiconductor power modules are operated in response to a single control signal. FIG. 2 shows a conventional parallel connection of the plurality of power modules 1, 1, . . . in which each signal terminal is connected in parallel with each other. More particularly, a control signal generating apparatus 9 is connected to the base signal terminal 5 in the first power module 1 through a wire 11a. The base signal terminal 5 in the first power module 1 is also connected to the base signal terminal 5 in the second power module 1, which is, in turn, connected to the base signal terminal 5 in the third power module, and so on. Similarly, as shown in a dotted line, each of emitter signal terminals 6, 6, . . . of the power modules 1, 1, . . . is connected in parallel with each other. The signal terminals 7 and 8 in each power module are also connected in parallel in the same manner.
As described in the foregoing, each semiconductor power module 1 comprises a single signal terminal for each electrode and thus, a wiring apparatus 10 for parallel connection for transmitting a control signal from the control signal generating apparatus 9 is structured as shown in FIG. 3. The wiring apparatus 10 comprises a plurality of contacts 12, wires 11 connected therebetween and a wire 11a connected between the control signal generating apparatus and the first contact corresponding to the first power module. The number of contacts 12 corresponds to the number of the power modules to be connected in parallel. A serial connection of the plurality of contacts and the wires 11 and 11a constitutes a single continuous wiring apparatus 10 for parallel connection. By using such wiring apparatus 10, more particularly, by inserting each connecting contact 12 into a corresponding signal terminal, a plurality of power modules are connected in parallel with each other.
However, in the above described conventional power module 1, a continuous wiring apparatus structured as shown in FIG. 3 is required for connecting the signal terminals in the plurality of power modules in parallel with each other and, in addition, if the number of the parallel connections that is, the number of the power modules changes, the wiring apparatus 10 must be correspondingly reconstructed.